The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
On 26 May 1828, Whitsun Monday, a ragged, unkempt boy turned up in the streets of Nuremberg. He could barely speak, understood very little, and could hardly walk. He had a note on him stating his name and his year of birth: Kaspar Hauser, 1812. Apparently he had been held captive in a cellar all his life, a curious fact that caught the attention of various scientists who subjected him to many investigations. Was he a savage, an idiot, a fraud, or the victim of a high-society scheme? Regardless, Hauser became a phenomenon. In the script, written by himself,
Herzog more or less follows the true events, casting the unknown, then 41-year-old Bruno Schleinstein for the part of Hauser. The fact that Hauser was only 16 in 1828 did not matter, as Schleinstein, who had grown up, unloved, in various institutions, had a deep understanding of Hauser's inner life. Also awarded in Cannes.
