In postwar Rome, Mamma is ready to give up her life as a sex worker and bring her son Ettore to live with her in the city. She moves to a respectable neighborhood, hoping that Ettore will go to school, get a good job, and marry. But Ettore is lazy, taking for granted the gains his mother provides.

A towering avatar for the downtrodden, Anna Magnani is heartbreaking as a sex worker struggling to reinvent herself in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s sophomore feature. Charting the changing cityscape of postwar Rome, where luxury homes mushroom next to slums, Mamma Roma is a powerful cry against inequality.