During the year 1943 Wolrd War II was coming to an end, so Benito's Mussolini government, which caused the Italian film industry to lose its center. As part of the Italian film industry evolution, Neorealism was born.

Italian Neorealism is the film movement that tells stories about the working class and poor people. This genre characterized by using nonprofessional actors is filmed on location and focus on the message of difficult economic and moral conditions.

It's not easy to put in this article the long list of movies that represent this famous genre, but I can mention movies like The Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D, Roma Open City, Rocco and His Brothers, La Strada, as part of the best of this list.

INew Italian filmmakers, still looking for portraying more modern stories into the world of neorealism, that is the case of female director Alice Rohrwacher.
Happy as Lazzaro tells the story of a group of people who lives in the state Inviolata., where 54 workers deal with a tobacco farm in a sharecropping arrangement where the habitats are constantly in debt, the farm is run by the notorious Alfonsina de Luna "Queen of Cigarettes"

From all the group of people on the farm, there is Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) a good guy, who is so diligent and innocent that borderline into a saint. Lazzaro works on the farm who dutifully follows every command given to him by the Marquis and the heads of the estate. One day the marquise decided to bring her son Tancredi to the farm who quickly befriends Lazzaro realizing after a few days how her mother and the head of the state exploit the workers to the level of slavery.

As the events in the film unfold, the spectators discover a story with pure Italian Neorealism but also Magic Realism to the level of the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Alice Rohrwacher delivers a critical message to slavery and work wages in the 21st century where people in some countries still been forced to work for nothing while privileges people enjoy the earnings. The film also exposed the human condition and how it's so important to find kindness in this world.