Werner Herzog
Anche I Nani Hanno Cominciato Da Piccoli

What is a colony of dwarves (not the fairy tale ones) doing in a re-education center lost in the deserted German countryside?

This is not a bad joke; it's actually the theme of the film in question, and the dwarves (about a dozen, ranging from 90 cm to 1 meter and 20) are the true protagonists of this highly grotesque and metaphorical film.

In the opening, we see a dwarf named HOMBRE sitting on a chair, fiddling with a sign that has a serial number (like the ones held in mugshots), and he is asked to recount the events that took place in this re-education center. Suddenly, with a flashback, the director narrates the story starting from the rebellion of the dwarves who, tired of their manager (also a dwarf), attack him. The manager, before barricading himself inside a large building, takes with him the head of the dwarf gang: PEPE, and ties him to a chair.

Outside, all the angry dwarves begin to degrade the place, taking it out on the animals (they make collections of insects on which they sew wedding clothes; they kill a sow while she is nursing her young, although it is not revealed how they killed her; they chase after chickens; they even crucify a small monkey on a cross made of broken chairs) and targeting the most defenseless, such as the two blind dwarves who play a curious sport by throwing a ball to each other and moving with a stick to feel the ground. Some more deceitful dwarves stealthily steal the ball multiple times, sparking a fight with sticks between the two poor blind ones.
They take possession of a truck and lock the steering and accelerator to make it spin in circles ad infinitum, amusing themselves with a kind of bullfight where the bull is represented by the vehicle.

They burn plants, break objects, have fun looking at outdated erotic magazines, and attempt to arrange a marriage between two of the shortest dwarves (one of which is Hombre). Meanwhile, the poor director suffers multiple attacks and despairs when he receives, by air, six chickens that begin running around his office while he attempts to gather them and send them back outside.

Laughter is the element that interests the director the most: the small inhabitants of the place always laugh, in every situation: Pepe, for example, does nothing but laugh and does not utter a word in response to the poor director; Hombre is the character who laughs the most, with an almost satanic grin and a chilling grimace, nearly chokes towards the end of the film when he sees a camel with broken front legs that cannot get up from the ground.

The peculiarities of the film lie mainly in the shots, such as the fixed shot on the truck spinning in the courtyard or, for example, the shot capturing the chickens as they fight over a dead mouse. The music chosen is reminiscent of the Taranta salentina, but sung in a German dialect.

The meaning of the entire film is subjective: some believe that the film is a critique of violence as a means of resolution, others see the film as a catastrophic vision of humanity, shrunk but still filled with destructive power and subversive spirit.

Even dwarves started small.... using violence, just as man started small.... using violence

Warning: The film is in black and white, in the original language (German) with subtitles, fortunately for us, in Italian.