Mamma Roma
Mamma Roma is a 1962 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and starring Anna Magnani and Ettore Garofolo. Synopsis. In Rome, an ex-prostitute, Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani), tries to start a new life selling vegetables with her 16-year-old son Ettore. When Ettore later finds out that she was a prostitute, he succumbs to his dark side and stops doing his duties. He later carries out a petty theft of a radio in a hospital and goes to prison. Meanwhile, until his incarceration, Mamma Roma struggles to raise her son the best  way possible and build a new life for both. Production. Shooting for "Mamma Roma" began on April 9, 1962. Controversy. On 13 August 1962, a complaint was filed, claiming "Mamma Roma" was "offensive to good morals" and "contrary to the common sense of morality because of obscene content, contrary to public decency". The complaint was thrown out by a magistrate five days later. At the film's premiere in the Quattro Fontane Cinema in Rome on 22 September 1962, Pasolini was attacked by protesting fascists.