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Italy, France, Germany · 1948
1h 12m
Director Roberto Rossellini
Starring Edmund Moeschke, Ernst Pittschau, Ingetraud Hinze, Franz-Otto Krüger
Genre Drama, History, War
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Amid the ruins of post-war Germany, Edmund Kohler, a twelve-year-old boy, is left to his own devices in order to ensure not only his own survival, but that of his family. Amid bleak desperation, Edmund does his best to stay alive and provide for his family, primarily through participation in the black market.
Rossellini is perhaps the only filmmaker in the world who knows how to get us interested in an action while leaving it in its objective context. Our emotion is thus rid of all sentimentality, for it has been filtered by force through our intelligence.
New York Times by Bosley Crowther
The sum effect of the presentation is a sense of bleak discomfort and despair, unrelieved by any purge of the emotions.
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.
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 faade and fallen stone.
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Short and very downbeat, this hits the irony buttons rather too much but is still an uncomfortable, powerful film.
En Filme by Luis Fernando Galván
The images of the city are extraordinary.
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.
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