Directed by Werner Herzog
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Shout! Factory)
Herzog and cinematographer Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein capture astounding desert-swept vistas in northern Africa. They gradually introduce man into this barren landscape, first through images of oil refineries, broken down trucks, rusting pipes and so forth, then finally we get a glimpse of a child holding a desert fox as a pet, both staring blankly into the camera. After awhile, we see some towns, their stark poverty contrasting with the natural beauty of the landscape we have been watching. In the last part, the focus is squarely on people, albeit skewed by Herzog's inimitable style. The imagery is undeniably powerful, but the narration is pretentious and often nonsense, and Herzog still can't resist showing revolting images of dead animals rotting in the heat or being cruelly manipulated by various people.
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