Even Dwarfs Started Small

Even Dwarfs Started Small is a German film about a revolt inside an isolated institution. Its residents, all of them short-statured, are denied participation in an outing as a disciplinary measure, and those left behind use the absence of the director and most of the others to break free of the established order. What begins as a release from routine turns into blind destruction, directed at objects, animals and eventually the weaker members of their own group, while a supervising teacher holds one of the ringleaders and barricades himself on the grounds. The uprising runs in circles and collapses as aggression grows among the rebels themselves, though the film is an allegory of liberation and its ambiguous nature rather than a straightforward story of revolt. It is built around a cast of short-statured actors, with Helmut Döring prominent as Hombré.

Werner Herzog directed, wrote and produced the film, his second of twenty-two features in chronological order, following Signs of Life and preceding Aguirre, the Wrath of God. It had its premiere in 1971 and runs ninety-six minutes. On IMDb it holds a 6.7 rating from roughly 6,700 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.4 from a much smaller base of about 126 votes. A critics' rating of 8.4 from eight reviews places professional assessment clearly above the broader audience response.