Nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Writing in a Motion Picture Story. 'Umberto D' is regarded as the last official Italian Neorealist film and was made by the director of ‘Bicycle Thieves’ (1948), who would go on to win the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film – the original version of the Palme d’Or – with ‘Miracle in Milan’ (De Sica’s film shared the prize with Alf Sjöberg’s devastating adaptation of ‘Miss Julie’). It’s one of the most moving and unsentimental portrayals of attachment, dignity and suffering ever made. Filmed in Rome with non-professional actors, it tells the story is of retired civil servant Umberto, who is struggling to survive on his dwindling pension. Flag, his pet dog, is his only companion. Umberto faces eviction at the hands of his tyrannical landlady. Desperate, he decides to end his life, but first he must find a home for Flag. Few films are as compassionate and moving as De Sica’s unvarnished portrait.