Roberto Rossellini’s final piece to his war trilogy, Germany Year Zero (Germania anno zero), is a stark, uncompromising film. The first two parts of the trilogy, (Rome, Open City and Paisà ), took place in Italy, but here Rossellini has moved the action to post-war Berlin, where we follow a child named Edmund around the Allied-occupied city’s rubble.
Edmund explores war-torn buildings, interacts with other youths and is seduced by an older gentleman, who represents Berlin’s still-palpable Nazi presence and is, of course, homosexual and probably a pedophile. Where were all the gay Nazi pedophiles when I was growing up?
The film, crafted in devastated Berlin not too long after the end of the war, is uncompromising and extremely dark. This is not an emotionally uplifting coming-of-age tale, in which little Edmund meets and conquers war’s demons. The style is neorealist, which was a European post-war movement in cinema emphasizing reality and eschewing studios and traditional “acting”. In Germany Year Zero, the effect on the viewer is brutal.
Look on the bright side kid, the movie will be over soon
Criticker users have been nearly unanimous in effusive praise for Germany Year Zero, though not too many have seen it. To be honest, it doesn’t seem like everyone’s cup of tea. If you’d like to read more about it, here are a couple in-depth reviews at Sense of Cinema and the BBC (spoilers at both!)
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