Burden of Dreams

BAFTA-winner documentarian Les Plank's making-of doco follows Werner Herzog into the Amazon jungle to film Fitzcarraldo.

"The film lays out the troubled history of the production then follows Herzog and his antagonistic star Klaus Kinski into the Amazonian jungle as the four-year ordeal reaches its culmination. This is the film that first branded the jubilant angst of a Werner Herzog rant on our brains: the jungle has become an “obscenity… The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they sing. They just screech in pain.” A poet of simpler pleasures, Blank frames his bemused portrait of Herzog’s excesses within a lyrical portrayal of the indigenous work force. The juxtaposition is as unforgettable as the resemblance of Herzog to his fictional hero." (New Zealand International Film Festival)

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