Sotto il sole di Roma (1948)

Rome, wartime. Ciro, a seventeen-year-old whose father is a night watchman, lives near the Basilica of St. John and spends his days lazing about with his neighborhood friends, often swimming in the marrana, a characteristic stream in the urban countryside. Near the Colosseum lives a man called Geppa, so named because his funny hairstyle resembles that of Master Geppetto. He is a poor boy who makes a living collecting and reselling cigarette butts. Iris, Ciro’s age and his neighbor across the street, has always been in love with him, but he invariably rejects her. With the arrival of the Nazi occupation troops after September 8, Ciro is forced to hide in Iris’s home to avoid forced conscription and deportation. One day Geppa arrives with Bruno, and they suggest that Ciro join the “black-market business,” alluding to the famous Fascist marching song. Ciro, Bruno, and Geppa wander through southern Lazio, passing themselves off as British deserters (Geppa as an Indian) in order to get food from local people, who are wary of giving it to Romans on the run. They keep at it until they are exposed by the vile Fernando, a former shoe-shop clerk who is now involved in the black market. One day Ciro and Geppa are arrested by the Nazis, while Bruno manages to get away. They are locked in a latrine in a village building being used as the occupation troops’ headquarters when an Allied bombing raid creates a providential breach, allowing them to escape. Back in Rome, still under Nazi occupation, Ciro learns that his mother has died. June 1944 arrives, and the Allies occupy the city. Fernando opens a dance hall, the Liberty Club, which the same young people frequent. Ciro is approached by Tosca, Fernando’s wife, and the two begin an affair. Some time later, tired of the relationship, Ciro tries to blackmail Tosca, but Iris intervenes with a small ruse, forcing Tosca to state publicly that she was the one who had offered to become his lover. Ciro is approached by some professional thieves who want to organize a tire theft at Pirelli, next to Roma Tuscolana railway station. Geppa tries in vain to dissuade him, then appeals to Iris, who says she is no longer interested in what happens to the boy. Geppa has no choice but to find and alert Ciro’s father, a patrol watchman in the area. Iris, however, is still in love with Ciro in truth; she finds him first and persuades him to back out, but by then his accomplices have arrived. Ciro’s father tries to arrest the criminals, but a shootout breaks out and he is killed. Losing his father makes Ciro realize that the carefree days of his youth are over and that he must take responsibility for himself.