Germania anno zero
Roberto Rossellini
In post-war Berlin in 1947, 12-year-old Edmund supports his family by bartering. His father is seriously ill and his brother, a former Wehrmacht member, refuses to hand himself over and tries to escape from the police. It is a harsh world where people try to get by as best they can and there are no holds barred in the fight for survival...
With : Edmund Meschke, Ernst Pittschau, Ingetraud Hinze, Franz-Otto Krüger, Erich Gühne, Alexandra Manys, Babsy Schultz-Reckewell
Screenplay : Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Lizzani
Image : Robert Juillard
Sound : Kurt Doubrawsky
Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
Decors : Piero Filippone
Music : Renzo Rossellini
Screenplay : Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Lizzani
Image : Robert Juillard
Sound : Kurt Doubrawsky
Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
Decors : Piero Filippone
Music : Renzo Rossellini
Production : Tevere films
Distribution: Les films sans frontières
Distribution: Les films sans frontières
After Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City) and Paisà, Rossellini closed his trilogy on World War II. He filmed in the heart of the ruins of Nazi Germany, and draws the portrait of a Germany undergoing reconstruction. The audience follows the life of a sacrificed child who wanders aimlessly through the streets of Berlin trying to forget the misery of life. "I tried to tell the story of a child, an innocent being that the distortion of a utopian upbringing drives to commit a crime while believing he is carrying out an act of heroism" (Roberto Rossellini). According to Serge Toubiana, "with a blend of lucidity and cruelty, [Rossellini] entrusts this child with the major role of coping, of trying to build what his "fathers", through their blindness and their madness, have destroyed and razed to the ground".