A poor Italian bricklayer (nonprofessional actor Nicola Zarbo) travels to Germany in search of work, only to land in more humiliating poverty and wind up on trial for manslaughter. Director Werner Schroeter divides his story into three acts, adopting a different style for each: the first, set in Italy, mimics postwar Italian neorealism (in particular the early films of Rossellini and Visconti); the second, concerning the hero’s arrival in Germany, transpires in lengthy, deliberately composed shots reminiscent of Schroeter’s contemporary Rainer Werner Fassbinder; the third, depicting his trial, feels like an avant-garde opera, with players in heavy make-up affecting exaggerated gestures and speechifying for the camera as though performing arias. Released in 1980, the film was a critical success in Europe and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival; today it feels unduly schematic, though the wealth of ideas is still impressive. In Italian and German with subtitles.