Germany Year Zero: dir Roberto Rossellini (1948)

Amid the ruins of war-torn Berlin immediately after the Second World War, 12-year-old Edmund struggles to support his ailing father; he gets caught up in black market schemes and falls to a Nazi-sympathising former teacher – with tragic consequences. The concluding part of Rossellini’s celebrated War Trilogy, this daring and heart-rending portrait of a decimated post-war European city remains one of the most affecting films in the history of cinema. Recommended.