The smash hit of the year in Italy, this film won 6 Italian Academy Awards.

It’s a tragicomic melodrama about an abused wife in post World War II Rome and shot in luminous black-and-white.

In Italy, universal suffrage for women became law in April 1945, and the 1946 election saw millions of women vote for the first time. The film is set during this historical era and follows a working-class woman caught between life with a domineering husband and dreams for a better life for her daughter. When a mysterious letter arrives, she discovers the courage to change her circumstances.

The film is an homage to early Italian neorealism. But it finds its own spirit through a feminist lens with some choreographed musical numbers and moments of light magical realism.There’s some nail-biting suspense which fuses the personal and the political and paves the way for a much brighter future for her daughter.

Wed. April 30 at 6:30 pm at Landmark Grand 10

Italy

Italian with English subtitles

One hour and 58 minutes