‘Germany Year Zero‘, filmed by Roberto Rossellini in 1947 and released in 1948, is one of those films about which entire bookshelves have been written and can still be written. In less than 80 minutes, this film manages to be the ultimate document about Germany in the years after World War II and one of the most remarkable films ever made about the disasters of war, about destroyed childhoods and about the harmfulness of totalitarian ideologies. It is a film that has been disputed, contested and boycotted: the German public did not see it for three decades, with the exception of a single screening in 1952. It is considered one of the masterpieces not only of Rossellini’s career but also of the entire neorealist movement, although in its production it violated some of the fundamental canons of neorealism. More than anything, it is a cry of deep human pain, expressed through the means of cinema.
Roberto Rossellini, who had lost a nine years old son the year before, chose to have in ‘Germany anno zero‘ as its main hero a twelve-year-old boy who survives in the ruins of Berlin. Edmund is the youngest brother in the Köhler family. His mother is dead, his father is ill. The older brother is hiding from the police, he fought in the German army ‘until the bitter end’ and he fears imprisonment in the camps. With three food coupons for four people, existence is difficult. The middle sister is forced to go out at night ‘for fun’ with the soldiers of the occupation armies, and Edmund tries to help the family by working (although he does not have a permit due to his age), selling objects on the black market, being an accomplice in thefts. He no longer goes to the school where ‘democracy’ is taught. The building in which the family lives is half in ruins, and in fact there does not seem to be any intact building left in the area of Berlin where the filming was done. The other tenants are also decimated families or refugees, always looking for food, in danger of being disconnected from gas or electricity because there is no money to pay for it. The meeting with his former teacher, still an adherent of Nazi ideas, infests the child’s mind with ideas about the survival of the strong in a world in constant conflict. The consequences of this ‘life lesson’ from the past will be tragic.
Rossellini used in this film, as he did in many others, amateur actors, to whom he gave minimal script instructions and granted them freedom to build their lines and details of the characters. This procedure, still considered modern today, gives the feeling of authenticity and true experience of the characters. The amateur actors were themselves survivors of the war, the deprivations and traumas they brought to the screen were reflections of their own experiences. Filmed two years after the Holocaust and the crimes of war, the film indirectly reminds them: German society is still deeply divided, psychological wounds are open, many of those who survived physically still carry in their souls the poison of the criminal ideology that had triggered the conflagration. Children are also late victims, their childhood is stolen, their coming to age is polluted. Those who had instilled the concepts that had led to the disaster continue to deny their responsibilities. Physical and spiritual recovery had not yet begun. The footage brings Berlin in ruins and its inhabitants to the screen like ghosts still haunted by the past. They are authentic, even if the actors played most of their roles in studio conditions in Italy. ‘Germania anno zero‘ completes and concludes Rossellini‘s trilogy of war films. It is also an exorcism of his own demons. The first two films had been dedicated to Italy during the fascist period and that of the occupation at the end of the war. With ‘Germany Year Zero‘ the Italian filmmaker returns to the roots of the conflict, in a way closing the historical circle by describing the disaster suffered by those who started the conflagration. It can also be seen as a historical warning, valid today more than ever.