Shot on location in Sicily and cast entirely with nonactors, La Terra Trema was planned as the first of a trilogy of works on the plight of the rural working class (the other two, never realized, focused on miners and farmers). Visconti examines the exploitation experienced by the fisherman of Aci Trezza and their virtual enslavement to the canotieri, the local fish merchants who buy their catch at unfair prices. Shot over a period of seven months by the celebrated Italian cinematographer G. R. Aldo, the film manages to accomplish Visconti’s goal of capturing “the whole dramatic theme as a direct outcome of an economic conflict” while imbuing the struggles of his characters with almost mythic dimension.