ABSTRACT
In Vittorio de Sica’s film, Two Women (1960), Sofia Loren plays a widow who is struggling to survive with her teenage daughter in battle-scarred Italy. Having left their home in Rome in quest of shelter in the countryside, the two eventually make their way back to the ravaged capital amidst Allied troops also headed there. On the way, the two women are traumatized by a brief, violent encounter with a group of soldiers who rape them inside a shattered church where the two have sought refuge for the night. The rape scene lasts a mere minute or two, but it clearly serves as the most dramatic episode of the film. 1
