Made on a tiny budget with a largely non-professional cast and filmed on the streets where similar events had just occurred, the rawness of the movie give it an immediacy that still hits home.
Aesthetically vivid, it's Rossellini's exquisite humanism that proves transcendent.
Aldo Fabrizi excels as the courageous priest and there are few films that have a finale as heartbreaking.
Roberto Rossellini's Rome is dazed, disoriented and at the mercy of Nazis in this classic of neorealism.
Roberto Rossellini's masterpiece (described by Martin Scorsese as "the most precious moment of film history") returns to the screen in a spanking 4K digital restoration.
Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh from Thursday March 20, 2014, until Thursday March 27, 2014. More info: www.edinburghplayhouse.org.uk
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