Ballad of the Little Soldier (German: Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten) is a 1984 documentary film directed by Werner Herzog and Denis Reichle about child soldiers in Nicaragua. The film focuses on a group of Miskito Indians who used children soldiers in their resistance against the Sandinistas.
| Ballad of the Little Soldier | |
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 Opening shot of the film. | |
| Directed by |
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| Written by |
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| Produced by | Werner Herzog |
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| Narrated by | Werner Herzog |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | Maximiliane Mainka |
| Music by |
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Production companies | |
| Distributed by | New Yorker Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 44 minutes |
| Country | West Germany |
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Herzog made and co-directed the film at the request of his friend Denis Reichle, a French-German journalist who himself served as a child-soldier in the Volkssturm at age fourteen in the final days of World War II. Reichle had attempted to make his own film about child soldiers but that project had stalled and he approached Herzog for help. The film is often cited as Herzog's most explicitly political, though Herzog denies that he had any specific statement on the politics of the Sandinistas. Herzog has said that the film is about child soldiers, and could have been made in any of several countries where child soldiers exist.[1]
References about the little soldiers
edit- ^ Herzog, Werner; Cronin, Paul (2002). Herzog on Herzog. New York: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-20708-4.
Further reading
edit- Csicsery, George Paul (1985–1986). ""Ballad of the Little Soldier": Werner Herzog in a Political Hall of Mirrors". Film Quarterly. 39 (2): 7–15. doi:10.1525/fq.1985.39.2.04a00040. JSTOR 1212337.
- Herzog, Werner; Cronin, Paul (2002). Herzog on Herzog. New York: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-20708-4.
External links
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