Germania, anno zero (Alemania, año cero), Roberto Rossellini, 1948, Italy, 74’, OV with Spanish subtitles, DCP.
One of Rossellini’s great classics and part of his neorealist trilogy on the post-war period, together with Rome città aperta (1945) and Paisà (1946). Filmed in the French sector of a ruined Berlin, the film presents perhaps the most desolate child character ever seen in the history of cinema: Edmund, a twelve-year-old boy who tries to survive the harsh conditions of post-destruction Germany.
If Neorealist cinema wanted to be a mirror of reality and directly show the human and social conditions of the post-war era, this film really succeeds in doing so. The result is absolute darkness and bitterness, perhaps reflecting the vital state of a society completely destroyed by fascism and bombs.
Best film and best screenplay in the Locarno Festival, 1948.
First session on the carte blanche to Locarno Film Festival with one of Roberto Rossellini’s great classics.