''No One Will Play With Me'' (german: Mit mir will keiner spielen) is a 1976

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

. The film focuses on a boy, Martin, who is outcast from the other children at his school. The film was made with pre-school children in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, and is partially based on true stories which Herzog heard from the children themselves. The use of a raven as a central plot element was inspired by the story of the raven from Herzog's earlier film '' The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner''.

Plot summary

Martin is a young boy who sits in a corner while the children play at school. The other children dislike his shabby appearance, and refuse to play with him. With some effort, Martin convinces a classmate, Nicole, to come to his house and play with his talking raven. Martin explains that his mother is sick with cancer and cannot cook for him, and consequently he eats only popcorn. Martin's father beats him. Nicole becomes Martin's only friend, and he is so thankful that he gives his raven to her as a gift. Nicole then collects money from the other children to buy Martin a pair of

guinea pigs The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the a ...

References

External links

* German drama short films West German films 1976 short films 1970s German-language films 1970s German films {{1970s-Germany-film-stub