Mamma Roma

In this 1962 drama from Pier Paolo Pasolini, Anna Magnani delivers a powerhouse performance as a mother desperate to escape her past and build a decent life for her son. Driven by Pasolini’s signature obsession with society’s outcasts, Mamma Roma delivers a gritty, neorealist snapshot of postwar Italian survival. Once banned for obscenity, it is now celebrated as a landmark of world cinema, capturing both the iconic Magnani at her peak and a visionary director finding his voice.