The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman (Giulietta Masina) bought from her mother by Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutish strongman who takes her with him on the road.

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.

With this breakthrough film, Federico Fellini launched both himself and his wife and collaborator Giulietta Masina to international stardom, breaking with the neorealism of his early career in favor of a personal, poetic vision of life as a bittersweet carnival.