Germany Year Zero ( Germania anno zero ) in 35mm

Released the same year the first theories of neo-realism were published in film magazines Esprit, La Revue du Cinéma , and Bianco e Nero by acclaimed critics, including André Bazin, Germany Year Zero rounds out Rossellini’s WWII trilogy and brings a continental scope to the devastating impact of Hitler’s final solution. By centering the story on a young boy navigating the devastating implications of war, Rossellini accentuates the stark contrast between generations. A major influence on François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959) and cast with people the director found by exploring the four zones of Berlin, Germany Year Zero would, Rossellini hoped, “reproduce the truth exactly as the camera saw it for that audience through the entire world which has a heart capable of love and a brain capable of thought.”