Rossellini is worthy of being one of the three giants of Italian neorealism. After watching the movie in German Year Zero, it made me horrified but sighed.
What frightens me is the indelible harm that war has brought to children. Edmund is a special protagonist of children's movies. He is different from the carefree children in most movies. He is the pillar of the whole family. His childhood was full of tribulations. From the beginning to the end of the film, Edmund continued to endure various difficulties. He was dismissed from the work of digging the grave, watching the horse being driven away, the food at home was not enough, his father was sick in bed, and his brother was a fugitive from war. His life Full of all kinds of problems. As a child, he has no way to rely on and has to bear the pressure of supporting a faltering family.
At the same time, he has the direct, simple and innocent thinking that is unique to children, so he is willing to help teachers go to the black market to resell Hitler's tapes, and he is also willing to continue to follow the teacher's teachings. It was the paranoid misunderstanding of the teacher's words that led to the tragic ending of his killing his father and committing suicide.
Rossellini’s choice to start from the perspective of children is very clever. Every family has children, and the future of society is also a child. From the impact of war on a child, we can see the long-term impact of war on society as a whole and society in the future.
Edmund's tragic life, magnified to see, is the sorrow of the whole of Germany. Although Germany is the base of Nazi fascism, no matter whether it is a fascist country or an allied country, the wounds brought by the war to the people are the same.
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