The constant tension between fiction and reality/realism has driven German director Werner Herzog throughout his vast filmography. His body of work is dotted with fiction films marked by a strong documentary impact – such as the epic Fitzcarraldo or Aguirre, the Wrath of God – as well as documentaries that he reshaped and elaborated, bringing them closer to works of fiction. Born in the Bavarian mountains, Herzog, from an early age, felt the impulse to film the world around him, questioning the very meaning of cinematic representation. Neither the concept of cinéma vérité – a term popularized by French sociologist Edgar Morin in 1960 – nor that of the documentary itself is sufficient to grasp the poetics of the German filmmaker, who has always been a master at unsettling both media language and reality itself: through cinema, one must probe deeper levels of truth, in search of a poetic, ecstatic, and more profound truth. His epic films, which portray feats at the edge of the impossible carried out by extraordinary and almost deranged characters, are titanic undertakings from the very moment of staging. Emblematic in this regard is his documentary My Best Fiend (1999), essential to understanding both Herzog’s modus operandi and his explosive creative relationship with Klaus Kinski, his fetish actor.
A creature once thought extinct and one of nature’s keenest observers. This documentary follows the faint traces of a mysterious elephant herd in Angola’s dense jungle. It’s not a purely scientific film but a primal exploration of nature’s beauty and brutality—an irr...
A descent into hell in search of El Dorado, leading only to death and madness.
A remake of Murnau’s 1922 classic, featuring a haunting Kinski, perfect in the role of the mythical vampire.
A miserable soldier consumed by jealousy and madness in a crescendo of violence.
A megalomaniac dreamer (as much the director himself as the film’s protagonist) who bends nature to his will in pursuit of a titanic feat.
Kuwait after the war appears like an alien planet, with infernal landscapes.
A profound reflection on the death penalty through the voices of the condemned.
