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Bicycle Thieves
(Ladri di biciclette)

Screening on Film
Directed by Vittorio De Sica.
With Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiol.
Italy, 1948, 35mm, black & white, 90 min.
Italian with English subtitles.

Named by André Bazin as "the only valid Communist film of the past decade" and by Georges Sadoul as "the most important film of the immediate postwar period," Bicycle Thieves uses authentic environments and non-professional actors. Regarded as one of the classics of Italian Neo-Realism, the film focuses on Ricci, an unemployed man in Rome, who finds work posting bills. After the bicycle he needs to keep his job is stolen, he roams the city with his young son looking for it.

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Alain Kassanda,
2026 McMillan-Stewart Fellow