Germany Year Zero is one of the rare films about the immediate after-war in Germany. It depicts a family who lives in the ruins of Berlin. Their drama is hunger and misery, the problem is recurrent, never solved. The father is too ill to help out. The older brother, an ex nazi, hides from the police. The sister goes to the dancing to meet French and Americans. It is finally Edmund, only 12 years old, the youngest of them all, who really struggles to improve things and find food and money. At one point he starts following bad advice and the tragedy begins. What Germany Year Zero shows us is how adults, unaware of it, can influence a child into making drastic and dramatic decisions. As the movie goes on, he becomes more and more isolated, physically and morally. The last scene is very poetic and at the same time tragic : one minute you see him playing in the ruins like a child, kicking a stone with his shoe, playing with a piece of junk, sliding down a beam, the next minute he puts an end to his life. To be seen by all lovers of neo-realism. With some similar themes I also recommend Visconti's Rocco and his Brothers and The Damned.
Review of Germany Year Zero
