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Director Roberto Rossellini started this tragic drama in 1943, but was forced to abandon the project as wartime conditions in Italy became more desperate. He subsequently moved on to other efforts, and the film was completed in 1945 by director Marcello Pagliero; after some censorship interference, it was released the following year. Desiderio depicts Paola Previtali Elli Parvo), a young call girl, who sickens of her life in Milan after a friend of hers commits suicide. Feeling unworthy of her boyfriend Giovanni (Carlo Ninchi), she returns to her native village in the Abruzzi mountains. But there her father turns his back on her and she is blackmailed for sex by a former lover. When her brother-in-law Nando (Massimo Girotti) starts making advances on her, her sister Anna (Roswitha Schmidt) tells her to leave town. In despair, Paola takes her life by jumping off a bridge. 46/79