Winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1961 and the Best Italian Film of the Year, this is a true classic of Italian cinema. A morality tale. Can people shake off the past? Will others allow them to? Four prostitutes abandon their working girl lifestyle after a change in the law closes their bordello. They open a restaurant. Flourishing, successful and happy they find that their past comes back to haunt them as they are reported to the police and forced to consider their old jobs as part of the landlord's tenancy agreement.

Fabulous performances by Simone Signoet (as the eponymous Adua) and Marcello Mastroianni as the car salesman/hustler/fixer that Adua falls for. The rest of the cast give great support that adds this to the pantheon of neo-realism classics. A grim and gritty tale with no Hollywood ending but a series of personal endings that add up to so much more, Adua e le Compagne is directed with great style by Antonio Pietrangeli.