Introduction Film-making has been, and still is, one of the most important cultural industries in Italy. Its aim is to provide products for mass entertainment; however, from the period after the Second World War, the Italian film industry has often felt to also have a sort of social mandate to accomplish. Characterized by a strong realism-oriented approach, it produced entertainment films, but also contributed to depicting Italy to Italians, telling stories in which they mirrored, identified and also criticized themselves.