The troubled lives of Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) and Pasquale (Franco Interlenghi)
intersect as they ingeniously traverse the omnipresent terrain of
poverty and unemployment in post-war Rome. Together they forge a living
on the street, shining the shoes of American troops, surviving on the
hope and optimism of a better life ahead of them. Their one true vestige
of escape is a horse they dream of one day owning. But the harshness of
their reality is never far away and it is not long before their
mischief catches up with them, casting a dark and ominous shadow across
their future.
Winner of the inaugural Foreign Language Oscar® in 1948, Shoeshine is the
tale of two irrepressible boys surrounded by the stifling oppression of
a corrupt and ineffectual political system. A celebrated classic from
cinema great Vittorio De Sicca (The Bicycle Thief), it remains one of the finest examples of neorealist filmmaking, drawing greatly from the spirit of the era.
