Vitorrio De Sica's follow-up to ' Bicycle Thieves' won the Best Film Award at Cannes in 1951. Its fairy tale-like story concerns the plight of the poor in post-WWII Italy. A group of down-&-outs who when threatened with eviction by developers escape manage to angelic intervention, thanks to a magic dove given to Toto, a young orphan, by a fairy. The dove allows Toto to grant the beggars their wishes.