Un uomo ritorna

Rediscovered at the Venice Film Festival in 2008, this post-war drama found little favor with the Italian public upon its initial release, was quickly withdrawn from circulation, and spent the next sixty years on the shelf. Austrian expatriate director, Max Neufeld, directed the film about a man (Gino Cervi), who returns from the war to find his hometown and family shattered and scattered. His young brother has lost a leg in the war, and his sister "dances" for a living. Dire poverty forces people to make what money they can on the black market, while sincere efforts to begin rebuilding the country are dashed by bureaucracy.
Yesterday's conformists and informers are dealt their just deserts, while the normal decent people struggle to keep their chins high. Anna Magnani is perfectly cast as the archetype of the Italian matriarch, who is seen fighting bitterly against all privations to keep the family upright and afloat in the minefield that is Italy immediately following the war.