A World Apart
After 40 years of teaching in the metropolitan jungle of Rome, primary school teacher Michele Cortese moves to an idyllic village in the heart of the Abruzzo National Park, population 1800, to teach at a tiny school with only a handful of students aged seven to ten. He quickly has trouble adjusting to the local culture to entertaining results but gradually adapts, thanks to the school's friendly vice-principal Agnese and its spirited pupils.
DIRECTOR
Riccardo Milani
actors
1h 53m • Rated M • Comedy-Drama • Italy
Antonio Albanese • Virginia Raffaele • Sergio Saltarelli • Alessandra Barbonetti • Solidea Pistilli
Some reviewers argue that A World Apart occasionally drifts into predictability, yet most agree that Milani’s gentle touch and unforced emotion keep it honest. The film’s social themes—education, depopulation, and the dignity of rural life—resonate strongly in today’s Italy, while its humour and warmth give it universal appeal. For many critics, it’s a modest, heartfelt ode to empathy and renewal that reaffirms Milani’s status as one of Italy’s most humane popular filmmakers.
CRITICS ROUNDUP
A warm, humanist crowd-pleaser
Critics describe A World Apart as an unashamedly sentimental but genuinely moving return to the classic Italian schoolroom dramedy. Riccardo Milani’s film earns praise for its tenderness and humour rather than innovation; reviewers note how it embraces familiar tropes—the jaded teacher, the struggling community, the innocent pupils—with sincerity and charm. Antonio Albanese anchors the story with a quiet, lived-in performance, his world-weariness gradually softening into compassion. The rural mountain setting is photographed with a painterly calm that mirrors the film’s patient, restorative tone.