Germania, Anno Zero
Roberto Rossellini
Germany, 1945. Edmund is the youngest child of a ruined upper middle-class family, now living in the rubble of the capitol. Most of the time he is left to his own devises, amid the hostile atmosphere. His little dealings support the family. His brother, a former SS member, is hiding out, and his sister spends her days hanging around the occupying army, looking for food. His father, widowed and bedridden, is obsessed with his misfortune, his physical pain and his misery.
With : Edmund Meschke, Franz Krüger, Ernst Pittschau, Ingetraud Hinze
Screenplay : Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Lizzani, Max Colpet
Image : Robert Juillard
Sound : Kurt Doubrowsky
Music : Renzo Rossellini
Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
Screenplay : Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Lizzani, Max Colpet
Image : Robert Juillard
Sound : Kurt Doubrowsky
Music : Renzo Rossellini
Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
Production : Tevere Film, Salvo d'Angelo Production, Sadfi, UGC
Distribution: Les Films Sans Frontières
Distribution: Les Films Sans Frontières
Roberto Rossellini began his career during the Second World War. Between 1941 and 1943 he made four movies, all produced by the Fascist regime in place at the time. Leaving the studios and abandoning nationalist scripts, he became the father of Neo-Realism with Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946) and Germany, Year Zero (1947). Preoccupied with Europe's social and moral situation and that of his own children, traumatized by the war, he asked himself, "The Germans were human beings like the rest of us. What possibly could have led them to this disaster? The false morals that were the essence of Nazism, forsaking humility for Hero-worship, exalting power over weakness, arrogance over modesty. That is why I chose an innocent person, deformed by a utopian education that leads him to commit a crime he sees as a heroic act."