Germany Year Zero (1948)

Germany Year Zero (Italian: , German: ) is a 1948 film directed by Roberto Rossellini. It is the final film in Rossellini's war film trilogy (the first two being Rome, Open City and Paisą). Germany Year Zero takes place in post-war Germany, unlike the others, which take place in German-occupied Rome and post-war Italy, respectively. As in many neorealist films, Rossellini used mainly local, non-professional actors. He filmed on locations in Berlin and intended to convey the reality in Germany the year after its near total destruction in World War II. It contains dramatic images of bombed out Berlin and of the human struggle for survival following the destruction of the Third Reich. When explaining his ideas about realism in an interview, he said, "realism is nothing other than the artistic form of the truth" (Rossellini 35).