Germania anno zero (1948)
Germania anno zero (1948)
aka Germany Year Zero – a foreign language film with subtitles
In post World War II Germany the cities are in shambles and their people are barely surviving on food stamps. Each family gets an allocation based on the number of males in the family provided they’re of age else they must find work. The story is told through a family who’s patriarch is too ill and old to work; another in the household Karl-Heinz (Franz-Otto Krüger) is too afraid to try and hasn’t even registered for his work permit for fear of being taken to prison for his wartime activities as a soldier. So the youngest underage son Edmund (Edmund Moeschke his only film!) who has a misplaced hero worship for Karl-Heinz must find a way to make up the difference for expenses. His quest leads him into various relationships with other children male and female who steal and eventually into working in the Black Market for a former professor (Erich Gühne) of his that he trusts. Many emotional scenes including Edmund’s father (Ernst Pittschau) saying the family would be better off if he’d just go ahead and die. Watch it all the way to the end to get the full impact of this powerful film by director story and screenplay writer Roberto Rossellini (Paisà (1946)).
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