The film is one of the few examples in Italian cinema with the courage to overturn the so-called "Southern Question". Instead of following in the usual rut of Italian cinema which delights in representing the South as a wild degenerate place, the film upturns such shibboleths by portraying the so-called 'modern' industrial North as many Southerners see it: emotionally cold, detached, devoid of values, materialistic and morally corrupt. And it cleverly exposes these ills through the conflicted character of a successful Southern Italian migrant living in Turin. Not that the South lacks its problems, which the film does not shy away from representing, such as its crime and violence. These are amply confronted through the family history of the main character. However, the film does point the way towards a re-engagement with the problems faced by the South through tolerance and by emphasizing the role that can be played by a love of learning even in the most difficult circumstances. In this it reflects, perhaps too optimistically, a long cultural tradition of obstinate but great Southern Italian intellectuals. What many viewers see as unattractive acting is the result of Calopresti maintaining the neorealist tradition in the modern era. It is not his fault that modern Italian life for many is not as 'exotic' and 'different' in terms of their own experience as it may once have been in the days of 'Bicycle thieves'.