This film is part of our ARTHOUSES special, showing in November and December.
In postwar Rome, a lonely retired civil servant struggles to make ends meet on his dwindling pension. When he can no longer afford his modest room, he is evicted by his indifferent landlady, leaving him and his only companion, his dog, homeless. As his circumstances grow more desperate, he strives to maintain his dignity despite poverty and old age. We follow him in his futile search for basic human needs: food, shelter, and companionship.
Vittorio De Sica, master of Italian neorealism, shines a light on the bureaucratic and financial struggles surrounding housing in Umberto D. True to the spirit of neorealism, he portrays this story not sentimentally but with a stark realism, making the film all the more poignant.