Bicycle Thieves (1948), directed by Vittorio De Sica, follows a desperately poor Roman man and his young son searching the city for a stolen bicycle — the one object that stands between the family and destitution. Shot with non-professional actors on location in postwar Rome.

Why It Matters

• The definitive work of Italian neorealism — a movement that rejected studio artifice for location shooting and social realism
• Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was voted the greatest film ever made by Sight and Sound in 1952
• The father-son relationship at its center is one of cinema's most emotionally devastating

Made with almost no budget and no trained actors, the film's ending remains one of the most heartbreaking in cinema — a quiet act of desperation that says everything about poverty, dignity, and shame.

Reference:

Wikipedia: Bicycle Thieves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Thieves