Maybe it was Herzog’s intention, but I will admit to a degree of confusion as the credits rolled on this. On the face of it, it is about a village famed for it’s artisan “Ruby” glass. The thing is, though, it’s only the factory foreman who knows the secrets of it’s manufacture and when he dies the rest of the place fears the worst. “Hias” (Josef Bierbichler) seems to have some gift of prophecy and is certainly not a man whose glass is half full. Indeed he rather ominously portends poverty and gloom for the villagers - a fate even more doom-laden than just not having the “Ruby”. In so far as th…
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