Besides having a very tragic story that is truly emotional, a great soundtrack, and an unbeatable backdrop of real post war Berlin, the acting holds the movie back a little bit and the characters lack the development they need to be relatable due to the short runtime and poor acting. I would recommend to history buffs and would maybe watch again.

From the well described "horror" of year zero, Germany went back in track in less than ten years. Incredible.

I want my innocence back after watching this movie. This was gut wrenching to watch.

While many argue that "Germany Year Zero" is just misery stacked upon misery with nothing else, sometimes that's life and is reality for people. This is the third and final film in Rossellini's War Trilogy and is by far the shortest and to the point, running at 73 minutes while the others are closer to 120 minutes. In no way does the run time hinder the message of the film, rather it makes the message clear and hard. The film's protagonist is a twelve year old boy named Edmund Koehler who along with his brother and sister must care for their weak and dying father. Edmund's older brother was in the German army and thus is in hiding due to the allied forces being in power at the end of WWII. This means that there are four people trying to surviving on three rations, leading them all to struggle day to day. Edmund helps in any way he can, often making mistakes and being taken advantage of in many ways but It's clear his intentions are heroic and noble. After helping an old teacher sell items and make a little money, Edmund begins to get brain washed by the teacher who constantly speaks of being brave and letting the weak die and the strong live. It's due to this that Edmund proceeds down a rough and ultimately fatal downwards spiral. The film itself is a lonely and dark coming of age film in wore torn Germany and is almost a horror film for the neo-realist genre.

One of Roberto Rossellini's greatest films

Simple, but tragic. Showing the hardships in Germany post WW2. Saw on HBO.

I came to this thinking about fascism -- this striking moment when fascism is militarily defeated, but not yet replaced as a structure of feeling. When I was starting to watch movies about Nazi history, I watched the Nazi film Hitlerjunge Quex, which is also centered on a young boy of around this age -- it was hard not to think about them as a pair of movies about boys coming of age bookending the experience / ideology of Nazism. Of course, it also pairs with Rome, Open City, which I watched a couple of years ago. Here, the devastation is bleak, the situation is bleak, and one catches the feeling of these impossible moments. I kept thinking, as I was watching, about the fact that Germany was actually rebuilt after such devastation... Most countries so destroyed have languished for decades. I wanted to know the next chapter of what would happen to these characters, how they would develop, how they would end up ideologically and economically. Who would be sidelined, who would transform themselves? Yet, I would say that somehow, it wasn't as gripping as Rome, Open City. This movie takes a snapshot of history, and it chose a moment which is fascinating in and of itself but from which it is hard to draw any conclusions.

Nos muestra que el pueblo alemán fue la verdadera víctima del nazismo. El uso de Berlín como escenario, propio del neorealismo, muestra la ruina de la ciudad y del interior de Edmund

A movie about a boy who is trying to survive in a ruined Germany where everyone is just trying to survive and not caring about the other. Most of the time you are scared what will happen to the boy next and heartbroken how he is forced to take a bigger share on everybody else's wellbeing than a boy of that age can in any way handle. Very good movie, but also sad and unfair.

The most well-crafted film of the trilogy, with sweeping camera moves and intricately staged long single takes. The idea of this world is terribly sad, a society facing it's karma, living in shambles, leeching off each other. Edmund is first seen attempting to get a job as a 13 year-old undertaker, desperate to work to feed his family - he's kicked out. What does it say about a society when the most seemingly available job is to bury masses of dead humans? It also deals with the exploitation of children, prostitution; everyone is desperate to feed themselves, and will do so by any means. There are no standards, it's survival. We always think we have to look to the future for a post-apocalyptic world, but this society already faced it. The score is sinister and well composed music, but distracting with sloppy transitions at times.

This is a very powerful film from director Roberto Rossellini, shot in location in Berlin immediately following the end of WWII. This neo-realist film tell the story of a 12 year boy who spends his day rummaging for food and items for trade to help support his family, which includes a very ill father, a brother hiding from police, and his sister. Gradually the boy ventures down a dark path that forever changes him. The location shooting of the ruins in Berlin really help set the tone for the film which many describe as extremely bleak, and i would have to concur. This is a powerful and emotionally draining film, but very much worth watching as the conclusion to Rosellini's WWII trilogy.

This is the final installment in Rosselliniâ??s War Trilogy. Unlike his first two films, this one takes place in Germany. It is perhaps the bleakest of the three both in terms of story, as well as theme. The panoramic shots of a devastated Berlin are undeniably disturbing. Rossellini does an incredible job making his viewers uncomfortable with the dark abyss that was post-war Germany and the bitterness and fear that comes with an uncertain future.

The third instalment in Roberto Rossellini's unofficial 'war trilogy' sees the neorealist master tackle an innovative concept at a turbulent time. Germany, Year Zero is a spiralling study of one family's post-war struggles in Berlin, immediately following the collapse of The Third Reich. Rossellini offers a documentarians-eye-view of a city of ruins, rubble and rough uncertainty. His Year Zero Berlin is characterised by pianos chiming through roofless churches, children working to support their families and British troops posing for photos amidst the city's not-so-ancient ruins. The images are harrowing, yet the film's stifling cynicism and detachment from its characters drains it of its potential punch. Rossellini conjures the illusion of humanity, but there's little under the surface of the weeping caricatures that he presents us with as key players and, for this, the film lacks the zing of typical social realist fare. The great director's solemn approach is no doubt poetic and intentional, yet equally frustrating and ineffective under the promise of his premise and reputation. A maddening melodrama.

Fabulosa película neorrealista. Con una locación maravillosa, nada más y nada menos que la Alemania destruida por la segunda guerra, en este caso nos enfocamos en Berlin. Rossellini es un genio, maestro... y con ese final, bueno hasta aquí decimos.

We saw this film in my film class and let me tell you, this is one of the most intense film I have seen in a long time. Depicting the precarious and difficult situation of Germany after the end of the war, the film shows that war indeed lasted far longer than we think for the civilian people battling every day to get food and survive in a completely ruined country. The principles , the beliefs and the values have gone out of the window here, because survival is more important than moral. The strength of the film is to show the story through the eyes of a young boy and we accompany him and his relatives on their daily struggle to survive in this post war Germany that seems like an endless desolated landscape filled with ruins and dodgy individuals trying to survive each in their own ways. The film tackles some extremely sensitive topics and I realized how daring and courageous Rossellini has been in the making of this film. some of the themes and images would not even make it to the final cut in a film today because they would be judged too controversial but it seems like people in 1949 (only 4 years after the greatest war of them all) had a lot more guts and convictions than we have today. One of the scene that I really liked is when the young boy goes selling a vinyl to the American soldiers and to show them the machine is working, puts on a Hitler speech that resonates in the ruins of the surrounding buildings. The haunting voice screaming the glory of the German people suddenly takes a complete different and emotional dimension in the middle of the ruins. Very powerful moment. Filled with religious allegories, the film manages to tackle ever aspect of the reconstruction process and the slow recovery of a nation who's lost everything and more in the aftermath of WWII. Strong film, powerful film, the last scene will stick with you for a long time believe me.

I imagine this was very hard-hitting at the time; due to the destruction Germany inflicted on the world, I'm thinking very few at the time cared to see the aftermath and misery Germany endured after the war. It's also interesting seeing this from an Italian perspective; Rossellini, coming from a country also dealing with its war past, feels to be saying "this could have also been us." Italy surely didn't come out of the war unscathed, but Germany's fate could ended up Italy's.

What an awful position the despicable Nazis left their descendants at the close of the Second World War. Rossellini has the perfect, objective, almost documentarian painterly hand in his depiction of this, and I have the feeling that only someone from one of the losing Axis countries, such as he, could so astutely and profoundly bring across such a feeling of loss and guilt that haunted these 'survivors'. A very sad film to watch, yet at the very same time necessary and healing. Clearly my favourite of his works, next to his magnificent 'The Flowers of St. Francis'.

The final film of Rossellini's War Trilogy, Germany Year Zero is undoubtedly the darkest and the most tragic, for it has included elements of patricide, child abuse, suicide and the devastation of people. However, it is viewed from Germany's angle, telling us that despite such pathetic is rooted from fanatic Fascism, no one could hide themselves from the predicament from wars. The saddening ending reveals Rossellini's philosophy and sympathy, which has also influenced the later French New Wave Cinema.

Quite possibly the most depressing film ever made, it is about the destitute, starving poor of Germany immediately after World war two. The main character is a 12 year old boy who struggles valiantly to take care of his family. Only 72 minutes, but very intense. This film will haunt you.

It's a really dark and poignant film, bold for 1947, but there are parts that fall a bit flat (that kid's voice annoys me too). I can see the picture Rossellini wanted to paint, and he did it justice. I wouldn't call it my favorite, but it's great for what it is: a portrait of post-war hardships.