Kaspar Hauser - Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle
Werner Herzog’s classic about the enigmatic foundling Kaspar Hauser. Who is this illiterate ‘child of nature’? Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1975.
It is an enigmatic story: one day, a young man is found in Nuremberg, dressed in rags, unable to speak or read. In his hand a letter with his name, Kaspar Hauser. Kaspar is exhibited as a freak in the circus – in 1828, people who deviate from the norm are not treated gently – until scholars show an interest in the boy. They want to study man in his natural state: does Kaspar have a concept of God? Moral sense? And how quickly can you socialise someone who has been held in a cellar for years?
Herzog’s version of the Kaspar Hauser story is certainly unique. In Herzog’s view, Kaspar is the lone ‘savage’ used by the civilised world to demonstrate its superiority. For the role of 17-year-old Kaspar, Herzog chose 41-year-old Berlin street singer Bruno S., and made grateful use of the many inimitable life lessons that Bruno blurted out on the film set.