1. Deutschland iN DER Stunde Null
Von Robert Rossellini

2. Background 1948 Main protagonist: Edmund (12 years old)
Post-WWII Berlin
Rubble film
Local, non-professional actors
Improvised dialogue

3. Plot Crowded household Three children and ill, bedridden father
-Edmund, 12 years old
-Eva (20s)
-Karl-Heinz (20s)
Unintentional assisted suicide
Actual suicide

4. Key themes Question of guilt Emotional and physical destruction
Struggle for survival after Third Reich destroyed
“Vergangenheitsbewältigung“- coming to terms with the past

5. DIRECTORS OF DIVIDED GERMANY
 "realism is nothing other than the artistic form of truth (Rossellini).”
Guidelines for German film makers:
No death
No psychological
No political neutrality
No pessimism
Scenes of everyday life

6. Reception Melodramatic, unrealistic
Most Germans disliked the film's negative and pessimistic attitude
Golden Leopard and the Best Director award at the Locarno International Film Festival

7. Term: “Stunde null”
Referring to May 8, 1945 at midnight (in English the term is mostly used to refer to the end of World War Two)
Non-Nazi Germany
Trying to separate the current Germany from the guilt of the former Nazi racial state
Meant to imply “an absolute break with the past and a radical new beginning”, or a “sweeping away of old traditions and customs

8. Youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWi3JymbSI
Showing the final scene of the film