Down but not out in Berlin

This is an amazing movie by the great Italian director of neo-realism, Roberto Rossellini, with music by his brother Renzo Rossellini following a script by Max Kolp. It is the third in a trio of films made by Rossellini on the futility of war and its aftermath. It was filmed in 1947 in a devastated Berlin. The actors are all Germans who have had their voices dubbed into Italian. At first this may seem strange, but after awhile it works.

Germany has been so badly bombed that it seems to be more rubble and collapsing buildings than standing edifices. In the midst of this graveyard of a city reduced to its knees, with conditions worse than they ever were during the war, people struggle to survive. Because of the loss of space families now live in one room where before they had an apartment or more space in houses.