Il cammino della speranza

A group of Sicilian miners facing the closing of the sulfur mine they work in are lured in by smuggler Saro Urzì (Apollonia's father in "The Godfather") to migrate to France where there are better job prospects. They sell everything they have, bringing entire families along, only to have Urzì abandon them in Rome. They take on the rest of the journey on their own.

This is a really unjustly obscure neorealist melodrama from Pietro Germi, better known for his 1960's comedies like "Divorce - Italian Style". It's a beautifully shot and massively entertaining film with a really wonderful lead performance from Raf Vallone (who turns up later in "The Italian Job" and "The Godfather, Part III") and a really great ensemble cast. This definitely should be one of the stock neorealist films that everyone sees, but it's not even available on DVD with English subtitles.