Pera Film, in coordination with the Occupied City exhibition organized by the Istanbul Research Institute, revisits one of the most pivotal points in cinema history, the birth years of Italian Neorealism. Under the Shadow of Occupations traces the radical impacts of war on cities and communities through the War Trilogy filmed by pioneer figure Roberto Rossellini right after World War II.
The trilogy, composed of Rome Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany Year Zero (1948), has garnered attention with its simple yet authentic aesthetic, a cast mainly comprised of amateur actors, and original narrative techniques that broke traditional molds; not only capturing the essence of a specific historical period but also significantly influencing the narrative and formal features of modern cinema.
Winning the Grand Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, Rome Open City, one of the early examples of neorealist cinema, portrays life and resistance in Nazi-occupied Rome, while Paisan follows stories in six cities in Italy during the war. The final installment, Germany Year Zero, depicts the misery in post-war Berlin streets through the tragic story of a 12-year-old boy.
