Werner Herzog Filmproduktion.

The inmates have taken over an institution in a bleak and savage world in which everyone's a dwarf. As one of the institution's directors holds a rebel hostage while issuing orders for calm, the other inmates run amok, smashing equipment, setting fires, fighting for power and tormenting two blind prisoners. In this land of reversed proportions, these revolutionary outcasts not only destroy the symbols of civilization -- cars, typewriters and dinner...

Set in the 18th-century, this film tells of a Bavarian village that looses the secret of making its unique Ruby glass. The townspeople turn to madness, murder, and magic in a desperate effort to recover the pure ingredient they have lost. During the filming, Herzog hypnotized his actors in order to help convey the atmosphere of hallucination, prophecy and the visionary.

Based on a real historical event, this is the story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who appeared in a small German town in 1820 after having lived in total isolation from humans since birth. He is taught to speak, read, and write by the townspeople, but is then mysteriously murdered.