Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
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.
Rossellini's final entry in his War Trilogy is a devastating masterwork of Italian neorealism shot on location in the ruins of Berlin. The film's plot — a child absorbing Nazi ideology to tragic ends — is harrowing and morally complex. The cinematography, using the bombed-out cityscape as an almost expressionist backdrop, is iconic and unforgettable. Its novelty is exceptional: no other film so starkly documents Berlin's apocalyptic ruin while embedding a philosophical critique of fascism's poisoning of youth. The ending is genuinely one of cinema's most devastating. Acting from non-professionals is naturalistic but occasionally uneven, keeping that category from the top tier.