Summary

The film by the well-known Italian director Carlo Lizzani is one of the now classic documentaries about the post-war problems of southern Italy. It focuses primarily on the congress concerning the post-war reconstruction of the region, but its main themes are poverty, exploitation of workers and the underdevelopment of the southern regions, exacerbated by WWII, and emphasizes the role of protesting workers as the leading force of transformation. While scenes of workers’ demonstrations were to be cut from the film in Italy, its original form won the Best Short Film Outline award at the 1950 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.