Even Dwarfs Started Small

Werner Herzog film with an entire cast made up of people with Dwarfism. Like Tod Browning's Freaks, it is surprisingly human and unexploitative. And also truly bizarre. They may live in an asylum, but they are still human beings with human needs. This leads them to riot, mostly out of boredom. The movie seems to take place in a world of dwarfs, since no normally sized people appear in it.


 * Author Appeal: Once again, Werner Herzog's Chicken Phobia shows up.
 * Crapsack World: During the duration of the film, the viewer enters a Crapsack World.
 * Deliberately Monochrome: Perhaps. It's just as possible they couldn't afford color film stock.
 * Flash Back: The film begins with the dwarfs rounded up and being interrogated for their insurrection.
 * Food Fight
 * Giggling "Villain": Many of the dwarfs seem pleased with themselves throughout the insurrection. One in particular never lets up.
 * Kick the Dog: The dwarfs are not innocents. They start cockfights, tear down a tree, look at pornography, and generally act like nuisances.
 * Le Film Artistique: An archetypal real life example.
 * Non-Actor Vehicle
 * Nobody Here but Us Chickens: even before they fight, there are many scenes of chickens just walking around. See Author Appeal.
 * Scenery Gorn: See below.
 * Scenery Porn: Ever so inverted, unless you like concrete walls and corrugated tin. The photography itself is pretty good though.
 * Screaming Warrior: The conquering dwarfs when they take on the blind dwarf.
 * Ten Minutes in the Closet: Well, a bedroom. With a full sized bed. The man in the equation can't get up onto the bed.
 * Twofer Token Minority: Despite people with Dwarfism making up the entire cast, the blind dwarves still manages to stand out.