Sciuscia (aka Shoeshine) (1946)

Set in postwar Italy, two shoeshine boys (Franco Interlenghi, Rinaldo Smordoni) are best friends. They are innocently duped into a scheme to rob a fortune teller (Maria Campi) and find themselves sent to juvenile prison. Directed by Vittorio De Sica (BICYCLE THIEVES), this neorealist movie is a genuine heartbreaker. Without sentimentality or manipulation, De Sica unveils a visceral experience that shows how two innocent boys are taken advantage of and abandoned by their family and a social system that destroys their chances at redemption by exploiting and betraying them. As cinema, it's raw and agonizing yet there's a ribbon of tenderness running through it. It's the kind of film where you stop thinking of it as a movie and as you watch, you know you're watching something real. Films like this come along all too rarely. With Bruno Ortenzi and Anna Pedoni.