Herzog’s first feature, which marked a turning point in the renaissance of German cinema, is an original mixture of Quixote-madness and case history. The central character is a wounded German soldier sent to sit out the war in an isolated Mediterranean garrison. Unhinged by the torpid circularity of island life, he is driven mad by the incredible vision of a valley filled with thousands of small, whirring windmills and stages an insane, one-man revolt.