The Ogre

The Ogre is a 1996 French-German-British war drama film directed by Volker Schlöndorff and starring John Malkovich, Gottfried John, Marianne Sägebrecht, Volker Spengler, Heino Ferch, Dieter Laser and Armin Mueller-Stahl. It was written by Jean-Claude Carrière and Schlöndorff, based on the novel The Erl-King by Michel Tournier. The story follows a simple man who recruits children to be Nazis in the belief that he is protecting them. Plot Abel Tiffauges (Malkovich) is a simple Frenchman at the start of World War II who loves animals and children. The first part of the film recalls his childhood at a sadistic Catholic school for boys where he prays to Saint Christopher that the school, which he sees as a prison, be burned down. By chance, while Abel is being disciplined for spilling lamp oil on the chapel floor, his friend Nestor accidentally sets fire to the building, burning it down as he wished. From that day on, Abel is convinced that fate is on his side, and that it will protect him from anything. In 1940, Abel works as a car mechanic in Paris. His hobby is photography, and he befriends and photographs the local children. However, on one occasion a girl named Martine takes his camera; he tells her off and upsets her. She then falsely accuses him of assaulting her. The police believe her, and he is put on trial. Fortunately for Abel, Germany has invaded France, and soldiers are urgently needed on the front. As a punishment for his supposed crime, he is conscripted to the army to fight off the invaders. After France surrenders, Abel and his comrades are sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in East Prussia. Abel is often able to sneak away from the camp to a hunting cabin in the forest where he feeds a blind moose. One day, he encounters a German officer who is curious about his affinity for animals and tells him that the moose is known as The Ogre to the local peasants before telling him to return to the camp and to stop visiting the cabin. Several weeks later, the officer returns to Abel, and removes him from the camp. He takes him to Hermann Göring's hunting lodge where the Chief Forester gives him a job looking after the animals on the estate. When Göring (Spengler) arrives, he first seems cheerful and friendly, but it is soon clear that he is sadistic, bombastic and mentally unstable.