IL ETAIT UNE FOIS…ROME VILLE OUVERTE

Written in 1944, the filming began in January 1945 while the Germans still occupied the northern half of Italy, following the liberation of Rome by the Allied forces and the takeover of the capital by the Italian anti-Fascists. The filming ended during the summer after Mussolini’s death and the German surrender. Roberto Rossellini, who made his first three films under the Fascist regime, succeeded in his fourth film to weave the legend of a post-war world. It is the story of the combative union of the Priest and the Communist worker, two emblematic figures of Italian society joined together in their resistance to Nazism. This mythical union between the two heroes of the film would help rebuild Italy.