Germania anno zero (1948)
Germany Year Zero is a film by Robert Rossellini. This is the third film in Rossellini’s war trilogy that began with 1945’s Rome Open City and 1946’s Paisan. In an interesting twist Germany Year Zero takes place in Berlin examining post war Germany in much the same way that the other two examined Italy. In the previous two films the Germans were the aggressors and now much like the Italians who were just trying to live their lives, we see the average German citizens trying to do the same. This German depiction comes off much darker than the first two, which is interesting because one would figure the director would have the more passionate melodramatic story with his own country and not the occupiers. This is a dark film…really more of a “neo-nihilist” film. It is however, an Italian Neorealist film…for an overview of the film movement please click here.
The story is told through the eyes of a 12 year old German boy. His father is anti-Nazi and terminally ill, trying to survive with his family on their meager meal rations. His brother was one of the last Nazis and is now holding out refusing to turn himself in to the new government as the law dictates. His sister though honest, goes out and is seen by people in her community as getting over by sleeping with American soldiers. Much pressure is then placed on the son to take care of the day to day duties as the father is too sick to leave, the older brother in hiding, and only his sister who is trying just as hard as him. He is exploited by older kids and more in particular his former teacher, a pedophile and loyal Nazi, who harbors ill feelings toward the boy’s father for refusing to enroll him as a Hitler’s youth. In his outings trying to sell and find black market necessities, he is exposed to prostitution, theft, and other vices while his father’s condition worsens with him often begging the boy for death. The innocence of a child is lost in the reality of the situation, in one of the most nihilistic endings I have seen.
Immediately noticeable and an aesthetic attributed to neorealism is the film’s atmosphere. Berlin is entirely bombed out with the family even living in a tenement that is bombed out. Long shots are utilized dwarfing the already small child to proportions that are nothing but metaphoric. Filmed in 1947, Rossellini depicted Berlin as it was objectively, never pointing a finger. Instead he presents an objective film that challenges the viewer to reveal their own sentiments toward Nazis and the German people.
