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Poster for Germany, Year Zero

Germany, Year Zero

A soldier can lose everything but his courage.

1948 · 1h 12m · Not Rated Drama
Directed by Roberto Rossellini

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Overview

In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
96%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The colossal rubble of Berlin is not just an analogue to the collapse of the social order but an amazing sight, and the movie makes you feel the weight of every smashed facade and fallen stone.

David Denby, New Yorker
Fresh

Pic isn't acted but 'lived.' Pro and non-pro cast play it with uniform sincerity. Edmund Meschke is the most impressive of the lot, delivering a poignant, believable portrayal as the young disgraced hero.

Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh

A horror movie that declines to tease.

Don Macpherson, Time Out
Rotten

The sum effect of the presentation is a sense of bleak discomfort and despair, unrelieved by any purge of the emotions.

Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh

To the critics of the time, it seemed that Rossellini had betrayed the tenets of neorealism...It now appears as Rossellini's first mature work, pointing to his masterpieces of the 50s.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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