Vulcano (1950)

Italy B&W, 106m
Director: William Dieterle; Cast: Anna Magnani, Rossano Brazzi, Geraldine Brooks, Eduardo Ciannelli, Adriano Ambrogi, Lucia Belfadel

Vulcano is the story of Maddalena Natoli, a “ruined” woman sent by the authorities from Naples back to her family home on a small volcanic island situated in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily. As a former prostitute, Maddalena attempts to save her younger sister from an unscrupulous man looking to take advantage of her. Filmed on location in the Aeolian Islands, Vulcano is a well-acted drama that contains some remarkable footage of not only this beautifully stark landscape, but of the incredible net and spear fishing, as practiced by the local inhabitants (Klaus Ming November 2016).