Based on a real event that took place in 1951, Roma ore 11 recounts the tragedy of a staircase collapse during a job selection for a typist, which left hundreds of young women involved. Giuseppe De Santis builds a choral narrative where each character embodies a social condition, portraying an Italy marked by unemployment and inequality. After the international success of Bitter Rice (1949), the director confirmed his vocation for a popular yet militant cinema, able to turn current events into civic and political reflection. The film also marks the beginning of his collaboration with Elio Petri, then a young journalist, who contributed to the investigation and screenplay while absorbing the style and social commitment of his mentor. Considered by De Santis his most precise and balanced work, Roma ore 11 remains one of the most representative films of engaged Neorealism, for the visionary force with which it exposes the contradictions of postwar Italian society.