La Strada

“Filmed in Italy - where it happened!”

Why would a mother sell her daughter to a travelling strongman? In Fellini's film, Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is simple-minded and poor, and she goes with Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) to be his wife and his partner in a roadside act. They cross the Italian countryside together, and he gives her coldness and blows for her trouble. She stays loyal to him, even after she meets Il Matto (Richard Basehart), the circus fool, and starts to wonder about leaving.