When Mussolini was captured, political power over Italy was restored to the royal family heir, Victor Emmanuel III. His first action was to appoint a man named Marshal Pietro Badoglio as Prime Minister, who then pledged cooperation with the allied forces and promised to continue fighting in the war. The fascist government party was dismissed and many political activists who had been imprisoned under Mussolini’s rule were granted amnesty and released.
Although fascism no longer had a hold on Italy, the repercussions of Mussolini’s government and the physical and social destruction left behind from the war left Italy in a state of serious depression. Social conditions in this post-war Italy were almost unbearable. Cities like Naples and Palermo were left in a state of physical dismay. From this, Italy began to question the future. It was during this period of unstable political and social conditions that neorealist filmmakers took to the impoverished streets of post-war Italy to document the lives of working
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The neorealist films were a way for Italians to reflect on the past and the events that lead to the conditions in which they were living. The repercussions of relying on one person, specifically one politician, to take responsibility and solve problems for the masses was being reflected on the screen, and this inspired Italians to take control of their own political, social, and economic issues. The paradox created by these films was simply that, although the movies were centered on the fatalism of Italians and how this affected the poor conditions, they inspired the people to rise from the ashes and change for the better. These movies, with the uncertainty of outcomes and fatalistic endings, paradoxically led to a new, prosperous