Plot. Gelsomina, an apparently somewhat simple-minded, dreamy young woman, learns that her sister Rosa has died after going on the road with the strongman Zampanò. Now the man has returned a year later to ask her mother if Gelsomina will take Rosa's place.

La Strada is structurally, and titularly, a road film; “la strada” literally means “the road” in Italian.

However, Federico Fellini utilizes neorealism throughout the film by featuring relatable characters that face very real challenges. These “challenges” appear as random events that appear throughout the film and seem to fall out of the sky. The characters either adapt and grow to them or overlook them and move on.

discussed in biography. With La strada (1954; “The Road”), Fellini returned to the world of showmen. It starred Anthony Quinn as Zampanò, a brutish but phoney itinerant "strong man," and Masina as the waif who loves him. The film was shot on desolate locations between Viterbo and Abruzzi, mean…