Carl Webster

Amazing film. You watch it and dive into post WW2 Italy, feeling the poverty as something real. The main actor (an eight year old kid) is so skinny you share his hunger as he scrapes at a spoon of soup his mother has given him. And his mother is an awfully terrible person who personifies selfish self-sacrifice! The setting is totally authentic, surrounding you with crumbling 1940s Naples or the more country surroundings of Modena and every detail is portrayed strongly enough to be utterly convincing. Molto bene!