ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER

Year: 1974
UK: NFT
Cast: Bruno S, Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira, Herbert Achternbusch, Gloria Doer, Helmut Döring, Alfred Edel, Florian Fricke, Andi Gottwald, Michael Kroecher, Hans Musaeus, Enno Patalas, Volker Elis Pilgrim
Director: Werner Herzog
Country: West Germany
Language: German
UK: 109 mins
UK Certificate: PG
UK Release Date: 31 August 2001 (Limited Re-release - London)

Synopsis

Written, produced and directed by Werner Herzog (AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD) this is the story about a full grown man, Kaspar, found in the town square of Nuremberg, Germany in 1828 barely able to walk or talk and became a figure of fame and controversy among doctors, scientists and educationalists of the day. Rather than dwell on Kaspar's origins and strange fate, Herzog chooses instead to compare Kaspar - an innocent at the mercy of a society too sure of itself - with the most liberal but blinkered rationalists who determine to shape his new life. Bruno S plays Kaspar to perfection, while Herzog brings rare lyricism to his account of purity imperilled by contact with civilisation.