An off-beat and entrancing entry in De Sica’s neorealist canon, Miracle in Milan is an extraordinary fable that bends towards magic realism to imagine a place where society’s most downtrodden can find purchase and possible escape from misery. Set within a fantastically theatrical shantytown, Miracle in Milan constructs an alternate world from De Sica and Zavattini’s fascination with marginalized perspectives. One of De Sica’s unsung masterpieces, Miracle in Milan’s unusual use of deliberate artifice and spectacle rekindles the Meliesian, magical aura of early cinema.