The Ogre

The Ogre (German: Der Unhold; French: Le roi des aulnes) is a 1996 war drama film directed by Volker Schlöndorff, adapted by Schlöndorff and Jean-Claude Carrière from Michel Tournier's 1970 novel The Erl-King. The film stars John Malkovich as Abel Tiffauges, a childlike French mechanic whose fascination with children and animals leads him, during the Second World War, from French civilian life to a Nazi elite school in East Prussia. The cast also includes Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gottfried John, Marianne Sägebrecht, Volker Spengler, Heino Ferch, Dieter Laser and Agnès Soral.