We the Living is a two-part 1942 Italian romantic war drama film, based on Ayn Rand's 1936 novel of the same name. It was originally released as two films, Noi vivi (literally "We Live") and Addio Kira ("Goodbye Kira"). It was directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and produced by Scalera Film, and stars Alida Valli as Kira Argounova, Rossano Brazzi as Leo Kovalensky, and Fosco Giachetti as Andrei Taganov.
The nominally anti-communist, but de facto anti-authoritarian film was made and released in Italy during World War II, then subsequently banned by the Fascist government and pulled from theaters. The film was lost and forgotten for decades, then found and restored with Rand's involvement. It was released for the first time in the United States in 1986.
The film version of Ayn Rand's novel We the Living was made in Italy by Scalera Films in 1942. Rand's novel was considered a political hot potato by Fascist authorities in Rome, but was approved for filming due to the intervention of dictator Benito Mussolini's son.[2] Goffredo Alessandrini, one of Italy's leading directors, and his young associate director, Anton Giulio Majano, knew that We the Living touched on volatile political issues, but they hoped they would be safe from repercussions because of the story's negative portrayal of the Soviet Union, Italy's wartime enemy.[3] Alessandrini was a very successful director during Benito Mussolini's regime. His films are noted for their extreme realism, and have been lauded as anticipating the Neo-Realist movement that was to follow the end of the war. Although, initially, his films were influenced by his brief stay in Hollywood in the early 1930s for MGM Studios, he successfully made the transition from musical comedies to historical dramas and ideological propaganda films when the tide of war changed the focus of filmmaking.
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