Lessons of Darkness

Shortly after the Gulf War, oil fires were raging all through Kuwait. In the week before this sea of fire would be extinguished, Werner Herzog filmed this apocalyptic landscape with its murky skies, scorched earth and capricious flames. Ironically, he calls this burning Kuwait "a new landscape, a national park for the future." He calls his documentary a poetical science-fiction film, because it does not contain a single image in which we can recognize our planet. Taken from the ground and from a helicopter, the often surreal shots are accompanied by music from composers like Wagner, Prokofiev and Mahler. We also meet some Kuwaitis: a mother, for instance, who says her child has been unable to speak since the war. But above all, the film focuses on the scenery, with images that are often shockingly beautiful, as Herzog has so often captured destruction, tragedy and beauty in a single shot.