Werner Herzog became one of my favourite people very
quickly. For me, this puts him up there with Tom Waits. This is not just
because he saved Joaquin
Pheonix or one of many other amazing feats, it would have happened just for
his films. This 2007 documentary sees Herzog travel to the ‘end of the world’,
to Antarctica. He makes his vision clear early on, this is not a film about ‘fluffy penguins’ but rather
about the people he will meet, the world he sees and life at its most surreal
and extraordinary.
The poetic Bavarian narration of Herzog takes us through the
world as experienced by the population of the Antarctic, we meet a bus driver
who had a near death experience with a tribe, a woman who seems to have
travelled through Africa in the most bizarre ways imaginable and a scientist
with a love for doomsday sci-fi. What is striking is the people we meet along
the way, they are all lost souls and dreamers who find meaning and direction in
this otherworldly existence.
I am not going to try to describe what Herzog found in the
Antarctic, only he could do it justice. What I will do is tell you that this
film is incredible; hauntingly beautiful, funny and profound, it is curiously life
affirming. To describe this as a documentary is perhaps misleading as it
suggests objectivity, this is not that. Encounters...
is a subjective, almost gonzo like journey of discovery by a man of unique
vision. It is many things, but above all, it is heart-rendingly human.
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