SCIUSCIÀ

“This story of abandoned children who give themselves up to delinquency and burnt friendship is one of the films that founded Neorealism. While narrating a series of unjust accusations, the story aims at drawing as concretely as possible the real culprit of these tragic misunderstandings: misery.
As often in De Sica’s films of that time, Shoeshine revolves around the theme of guilt. Adults are guilty towards children, the cultivated towards the uneducated and the wealthy towards the excluded.”. (J. Lourcelles)
De Sica draws inspiration from two real-life shoeshine boys, who, as soon as they scraped together a few lire, would loan a horse. “It’s a pity that neither of them, of course, watched the film. They would attend horse races, football games, but certainly not cinema “(V. De Sica)