"Strong Ferdinand" - a later film, shot on his own story, brought director Alexander Kluga a resounding success with the public. The film touches on the problems of neo-fascism in Germany.
Little but brave Ferdinand Rihe is not lucky everywhere. After the authorities remove Ferdinand from the post of police commissioner, he gets a job in the factory as the head of the security service with a probationary period of six months. But even in a new place, he again approaches the business with unprecedented enthusiasm, as usual, overdoing it and seeing no limits to his actions. Rihe is simply not able to act clearly according to instructions and necessary instructions - on any account he has his own opinion.
It is not easy for Ferdinand to channel his dictatorial tendencies in a peaceful way, and he is not very familiar with such concepts as communism or democracy. He considers it quite permissible for him to make decisions concerning not only his direct official duties, but also those that do not fall within his competence. For example, Rihe arbitrarily arranges a check on workers working at the factory, searches them in search of stolen state property. Of course, all this bears fruit – something was really stolen, but the method by which Rihe acts, no one respects. The head of the security service does not shy away from another no less tactless way to teach others to work: he sneaks into the warehouse of a rival factory at night and takes out goods from there, trying to teach colleagues a lesson. Ferdinand believes that only he knows how to provide security services.
It is no coincidence that the totalitarianism inherent in Ferdinand is rushing out in all its manifestations - it seems to me that the comic image of Ferdinand Rihe evokes associations with political dictators. The zeal for success, power, universal control, perhaps even enslavement, and exorbitant ambition are nothing but evidence of the Napoleon complex, which suffered from its imaginary inferiority and said: “If I cannot become tall, I will become great.”
From the mouth of Ferdinand you can often hear the words “regime”, “system”, “experience”, “experiment”.
Ferdinand himself explains his actions as follows: “Our life does not have an exact meaning, so we do not always hit the target.”