Heaven Over the Marshes

Heaven Over the Marshes

1949 · 111 min · ★ 6.2 · Drama

Unlike most Italian films of the 1940s, Augusto Genina's Cielo Sulla Palude opened in Venice rather than Rome. The film's American title was Heaven Over the Marshes, and indeed most of the story is set in the disease-ridden Pontine Marshes on the outskirts of Rome. This was the home of Maria Goretti, a pious young girl who was murdered by her would-be seducer. For reasons elucidated in the course of the film, Maria's short time on earth made her worthy of Sainthood, which was actually bestowed upon her shortly after the release of this film. Maria Goretti is well-played by Ines Orsini. Cielo Sulla Palude served as the comeback feature for director Augusto Genina, whose previous pro-fascist films had caused him to be blacklisted after WW II.

Directed by Augusto Genina · Written by Suso Cecchi d'Amico

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Cast

Inés Orsini Maria Goretti
Giovanni Martella Luigi Goretti - il padre di Maria
Mauro Matteucci Alessandro Serenelli
Rubi D'Alma La contessa Teneroni
Michele Malaspina Il conte
Domenico Viglione Borghese Il dottore (as D. Viglione Borghese)
Assunta Radico Assunta Goretti - La madre di Maria
Francesco Tomalillo Giovanni Serenelli - il padre di Serenelli
María Luisa Landín Lucia
Ida Paoloni Teresa
Federico Meloni Angelo
Jole Savoretti Anna

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