The Sinful Dwarf (originally titled Dværgen) occupies a notorious niche in the annals of underground cinema. Directed by Vidal Raski, the film is widely recognized as a bizarre, shocking and controversial artifact of 1970s European genre filmmaking. It takes place in a boarding house managed by a harsh, heavy-drinking mother and her peculiar, pint-sized son, Olaf (played by Torben Bille). Beneath the mundane veneer of a rooming house lies a grim enterprise: a forced prostitution ring.
To maintain control over their captives, Olaf and his mother systematically imprison the young women, utilizing a steady supply of smuggled heroin to induce compliance and chemical dependency, effectively crushing any will to escape. The precarious ecosystem of the house is disrupted, however, when an unsuspecting young couple rents a room. True to the exploitation formula, the sinister landlords quickly fixate on the young woman, setting off a deeply unsettling chain of events.
True to its low-budget roots, the film features an unusual pacing structure. Viewers may find themselves bracing for non-stop chaos only to experience lengthy, almost surreal stretches of characters walking up and down stairs, navigating doors, and managing everyday tasks. Backed by an eccentric musical score that heavily features disquieting toy motifs, the movie leans heavily into a dreamlike, albeit intensely sleazy, atmosphere.
Oh yeah, some cuts have inserts. That’s on top of a character named Santa Claus who uses teddy bears to smuggle heroin. And also scenes where the matriarch of the boarding house dresses up as Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda to put on shows. But above all else, the weird toys in this suggest a world where Toys Are Not for Children migrated into Denmark and had its fecund way with the filmmakers’ minds, resulting in this, a movie where a Jack Black-looking miniature man uses his cane to not pleasure a woman.
Of course, I bought the Blu-ray.
