Résumé

In the final months of fascism, the realization of “La porta del cielo” (“The Gate of Heaven”, 1945), produced by the Catholic Film Center of Rome and directed by Vittorio De Sica, would have served as an “inner exile” to the filmmaker, as well as a miraculous refuge for hundreds of Jews. Thanks to purposely endless footage, Jews hired as extras would have been able to save themselves from deportation to Auschwitz. A touching story, but how true would it be? Are we facing a fairy tale imagined to ennoble the political performance of the filmmaker in the final months of the regime, when the collapse of fascism was already evident? Almost invisible, the film keeps its secret: miracle or fraud? Analyzing a copy exhibited once by RAI, we intend to shed light on a little studied film of one of the masters of Italian neorealism.