Synopsis
The concluding chapter of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy is the most devastating, a portrait of an obliterated Berlin, seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy. Living in a bombed-out apartment building with his sick father and two older siblings, young Edmund is mostly left to wander unsupervised, getting ensnared in the black-market schemes of a group of teenagers and coming under the nefarious influence of a Nazi-sympathizing ex-teacher. Germany Year Zero (Deutschland im Jahre Null) is a daring, gut-wrenching look at the consequences of fascism, for society and the individual.
Cast
| Edmund Koehler | Edmund Moeschke |
| The father | Ernst Pittschau |
| Eva | Ingetraud Hinze |
| Karl-Heinz | Franz-Martin Krüger |
| The teacher | Erich Gühne |
Credits
| Director | Roberto Rossellini |
| Producer | Roberto Rossellini |
| Screenplay | Roberto Rossellini |
| with the collaboration of | Max Colpet |
| Cinematography | Robert Juillard |
| Sets | Piero Filippone |
| Editing | Eraldo Da Roma |
| Music | Renzo Rossellini |
| Sound | Kurt Doubrawsky |
| Assistant directors | Max Colpet and Carlo Lizzani |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Video introduction by Roberto Rossellini from 1963
- The Italian release opening credits and voice-over prologue
- Roberto Rossellini, a 2001 documentary by Carlo Lizzani, assistant director on Germany Year Zero, tracing Rossellini’s career through archival footage and interviews with family members and collaborators, with tributes by filmmakers François Truffaut and Martin Scorsese
- Letters from the Front: Carlo Lizzani on “Germany Year Zero,” a podium discussion with Lizzani from the 1987 Tutto Rossellini conference
- New video interview with Rossellini scholar Adriano Aprà
- Italian directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre padrone) discussing the profound influence Rossellini’s films have had on them
- Roberto and Roswitha, a new illustrated essay by film scholar Thomas Meder on Rossellini’s relationship with his mistress Roswitha Schmidt
- New and improved English subtitle translations
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