Rosi's first feature is a striking example of late neorealism. If it owes its confidence and seamless fluidity to the director's apprenticeship under Luchino Visconti, The Challenge brings us immediately into the Rosi universe: the gritty social realities and existential challenges of Italy's South. The story, based on a real event, centers on an insignificant but ambitious young cigarette smuggler in Naples who decides to muscle in on the fruit and vegetable market, Mafia territory, and refuses to comply with its codes and commands. Vito may be less than admirable in his attempt to break the corrupt hold of authority, but he is the quintessential Rosi antihero, “who dares to imagine that he is bigger and stronger than the existing power structure, with consequences that usually are fatal” (Stuart Klawans, Film Comment). With supreme confidence, Vito announces his engagement to Assunta, but their wedding provides a stage for Vito's inevitable comeuppance.