He was a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and fought with the anti-German Resistance in Rome during World War II.

While working as a journalist for Cinema magazine, De Santis became, under the influence of Cesare Zavattini, a major proponent of the early neorealist filmmakers who were trying to make films that mirrored the simple and tragic realities of proletarian life using location shooting and nonprofessional actors.

Like the two films to follow, it was a sincere call for better living conditions for the Italian working class and agrarian workers.

In 1952 he filmed Roma ore 11 (Rome 11 o'clock), the first version of the real tragic accident that Augusto Genina remade in 1953 as Three Forbidden Stories.

[4] De Santis died in 1997 at the age of 80, in Rome, following a heart attack, and a day of mourning was declared in Italy.