The Center for Italian Culture at Fitchburg State University presents “L'Italia Liberata,” a film series exploring the new Italy that emerged after the end of World War II and its alliance with the United States. The series opens Thursday, Feb. 9, at 3:30 and 7 p.m. with Roma, Città Aperta in the Ellis White Lecture Hall in the Hammond Campus Center, 160 Pearl St., Fitchburg.

All of the films in the series reflect the effort of Italians to first defeat and escape Fascism domination (Roma, Città Aperta); then the immediate post-war choice-whether to escape or to face the heavy task of rebuilding after the crushing defeats of the Mussolini era (Mediterraneo, screening Thursday, April 12); and finally the struggle to rebuild their lives despite the losses, to loosen the strictures of the church on society, as they created a new liberated Italy where the freedom to think freely and creatively was possible (Cinema Paradiso, screening Thursday, March 8).

The series is facilitated by Professor Teresa Thomas.

Roma, Città Aperta is the story of Italian resistance fighters as the Nazis tightened the noose on Rome. The film, shot amidst the wreckage of Rome just after the Nazi surrender, stars Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi. Director Roberto Rossellini took his cameras into the streets and based the script on the experiences of the Italians under Nazi occupation between 1943 and 1945; it was released in September 1945 less than six months after the Nazi surrender. The New York Times called it one of the “strongest dramatic films yet made about the recent war” after its U.S. release in 1946. It won the Cannes Film Festival's grand prize, and the New York and National Board Awards as Best Foreign Language Film. It was co-written by a young Federico Fellini.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and will be available at the door. A series pass can also be purchased for $15.

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