In the fishing village of Aci Trezza, Sicily, the Valastro family dream of a better life. Living modestly thanks to merciless wholesalers, eldest son Ntoni takes matters into his own hands and - with the help of a bank loan - starts fishing alone. The venture is initially a success but an unexpected shipwreck means the family must soon fend for themselves. Originally commissioned as propaganda by the Communist Party, master filmmaker Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, Death in Venice) used the real villagers of Aci Trezza as his stars to craft a docu-fictional melodrama about the difficulties of rural life post-World War II. La terra trema was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1948 Venice Film Festival and is considered one of the finest examples of Italian neorealist cinema.