Lektionen in Finsternis

Shortly after the Gulf War, many oil fires were raging in Kuwait. In the week before the sea of fire was extinguished, Herzog went and filmed this apocalyptic landscape full of murky skies, scorched earth and capricious flames. Ironically, he called burning Kuwait ‘a new landscape, a national park for the future‘. He called his documentary a poetical science-fiction film, because it does not contain a single image in which we can recognise our planet. The often surreal shots were made from the ground and from a helicopter, and are accompanied by music by composers like Wagner, Prokofiev and Mahler. Sometimes a resident of Kuwait is introduced, like a mother who says that since the war her child can no longer speak. But above all, the film focusses on the scenery, with images that are often shockingly beautiful, as Herzog so often captures destruction, tragedy and beauty together in one shot.