An intimate portrait of the great Italian actress Anna Magnani, a symbol of neorealism and an icon of the world’s film industry: the scene in Roma città aperta, where Anna is gunned down by the Nazis, brought the horrors of the war to cinema screens around the world and became the symbol a new genre of film: neorealism.

Anna, deeply attached to her Rome, embodied a feminine model which differed from all the other celebrities who came before and after her. Thanks to her great skills as an actress, Magnani inspired some of the greatest European and American directors including Roberto Rossellini, Luchino Visconti, and Stanley Kramer. In 1956, she was awarded an Academy Award for Best Actress and remains the only Italian actress who won for an English-speaking film.