Vittorio De Sica‘s 1948 Italian neorealist drama film Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette). It tells the narrative of a destitute man seeking his stolen bicycle in post-World War II Rome, without which he would lose the job that was supposed to save his young family.
Adapted for the screen by Cesare Zavattini from Luigi Bartolini’s 1946 novel of the same name, and starring Lamberto Maggiorani as the desperate father and Enzo Staiola as his plucky young son, Bicycle Thieves received an Academy Honorary Award (most outstanding foreign language film) in 1950, and was voted the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine’s poll of filmmakers and critics in 1952. Fifty years later, another survey conducted by the same magazine placed it sixth among all-time great films.
The film was placed 33rd among reviewers and 10th among directors in the 2012 edition of the list. Turner Classic Movies named the picture one of the most influential films in cinema history, and it is regarded as part of the canon of classic cinema. At the 1958 World Expo, the film was ranked third on the renowned Brussels 12 list.