Filmed in 1945, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City was one of the first films to be made about life under the Nazis.  Uniquely, it was a film made by and starring the people who had actually experienced, firsthand, the occupation of Rome by the Germans and much of the film was based on their real-life experiences.  The majority of the cast was made up of nonprofessionals and, largely because the city’s once-impressive studios and sound stages had been destroyed during the war, the film was shot on location, on the streets where many of the events depicted had actually occurred.

Rome, Open City follows a diverse group of characters who are all involved with the Resistance.  When the film begins, it appears that the pregnant Pina (Anna Magnani) is meant to be the main character.  However, in a scene that was considered quite shocking for the time, Pina is shot in the streets by the Nazis while chasing after a truck that is carrying away her fiancé.  The scene captures both the casual brutality of the Nazis and the reality of living under an occupation.  It’s a scene that reminds the viewer that evil is not sentimental, evil does not care that you are pregnant or that you’re planning on getting married, and that the forces of evil will do anything — including shooting an unarmed woman in the street — to maintain power.

The priest who tries to help Pina was based on Giuseppe Morosini, who was a member of the Italian Resistance and who was executed in 1944, shortly before the Nazis fled Rome and left the city to the Allies.  Originally, Rossellini planned to make a documentary about Morosini’s life.  When that project struggled to get off the ground, he instead incorporated Morosini’s story into Open City.