Details

Release year: 1960

Storyline

In WWII Italy, a widow and her lonely daughter seek distance between themselves and the horrors of war.

Top credits

Directors

Vittorio De Sica

Writers

Cast

Sophia Loren — Cesira
Jean-Paul Belmondo — Michele Di Libero
Raf Vallone — Giovanni
Eleonora Brown — Rosetta

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Awards

1 win & 0 nominations

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Did you know

• Sophia Loren claims that Director Vittorio De Sica, so caught up in the story, regularly cried on the set when filming particularly emotional scenes.

• Sophia Loren's Best Actress Academy Award was the first Oscar ever given for a performance in a foreign-language film.

• The novel (and, therefore, the film as well) is based on true events of mass rapes by the Moroccan Gourmiers in the Ciocara region after the battle of Monte Cassino in World War II. Monte Cassino was captured by the Allies on 18 May 1944, and on the following night, thousands of Goumiers and other colonial troops scoured the the hills surrounding the towns and the villages of Ciociaria. Over 60,000 women, ranging in age from 11 to 86, suffered violence when village after village came under control of the Goumiers. Civilian men, who tried to protect their wives and daughters, were murdered.