page_title: We the Living (film)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: We the Living (film) / Production history / Background
caption_attribution_description: photo from Italian magazine Film, II, 52, 30 December 1939, p. 4.
context_page_description: We the Living is a two-part 1942 Italian romantic war film directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and stars Alida Valli, Rossano Brazzi and Fosco Giachetti. It is a film adaptation of Ayn Rand's 1936 novel We the Living.
  The nominally anti-communist, but de facto anti-authoritarian film was made and released in Italy during World War II, then subsequently banned by the Fascist government and pulled from theaters. The film was lost and forgotten for decades, then found and restored with Rand's involvement. It was released for the first time in the United States in 1986.
context_section_description: The film version of Ayn Rand's novel We the Living was made in Italy by Scalera Films in 1942. Rand's novel was considered a political hot potato by Fascist authorities in Rome, but was approved for filming due to the intervention of dictator Benito Mussolini's son. Goffredo Alessandrini, one of Italy's leading directors, and his young associate director, Anton Giulio Majano, knew that We the Living touched on volatile political issues, but they hoped they would be safe from repercussions because of the story's negative portrayal of the Soviet Union, Italy's wartime enemy.
caption: Director Goffredo Alessandrini
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