Fata Morgana

In this poetical, non-narrative documentary the desert landscapes of the Sahara, Uganda and East Africa are the leading characters; for a long time, man is present only indirectly, in wrecks, collapsed buildings and dead cattle. The film is divided into three chapters: ‘The Creation’, ‘Paradise’ and ‘The Golden Age’, based on the myth of the Quiche Indians from Guatemala about the origin of the world. Only later in the film, people appear on the screen: giggling tourists, a zoologist obsessed with lizards, a teacher who teaches her African students to say in German: ‘Blitzkrieg ist Wahnsinn’. Herzog called his film a science fiction elegy about the dead or demented colonialism in the Sahara. Because of the emphasis on wild landscapes, it is clear that 'fata morgana' applies to man, moving hazily along the horizon, without a purpose.