Two Women

Two Women
Directed by	Vittorio De Sica
Produced by	Carlo Ponti
Written by	Cesare Zavattini Uncredited: Vittorio De Sica
Based on	Two Women by Alberto Moravia
Starring	Sophia Loren Jean-Paul Belmondo Eleonora Brown Carlo Ninchi
Music by	Armando Trovajoli
Cinematography	Gábor Pogány
Production company	Compagnia Cinematografica Champion Cocinor Les Films Marceau Société Générale de Cinématographie (S.G.C.)
Distributed by	Titanus Distribuzione Embassy Pictures (USA)
Release date	22 December 1960 (1960-12-22)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Italy France
Language	Italian German
Box office	2,024,049 admissions (France)

Two Women (Italian: La ciociara [la tʃoˈtʃaːra], roughly translated as "The [Woman] from Ciociaria") is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi. The film was adapted by De Sica and Cesare Zavattini from the novel of the same name written by Alberto Moravia. The story is fictional, but based on actual events during what the Italians call Marocchinate.

The story centers on Cesira (Loren), a widowed Roman shopkeeper, and Rosetta (Brown), her devoutly religious twelve-year-old daughter, during World War II. To escape the Allied bombing of Rome, Cesira and her daughter flee southern Lazio for her native Ciociaria, a rural, mountainous province of central Italy. The night before they go, Cesira sleeps with Giovanni, a neighbouring coal dealer who agrees to look after her store in her absence.

After they arrive at Ciociaria, Cesira attracts the attention of a young local intellectual with communist sympathies named Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo). Rosetta sees Michele as a father figure and develops a strong bond with him. However, Michele is eventually taken prisoner by a company of German soldiers, who hope to use him as a guide to the mountainous terrain.