I had heard of Werner before I worked on his Blu-Ray disc of RESCUE DAWN, but did not know too much about the man, but after seeing RESCUE DAWN I was fascinated by this strange and possibly insane documentary and narrative director. This is the story of his journey to Antarctica to see the people living there, and to get footage from under the glaciers in the ocean, of the incredible creatures unlike anything else on Earth. Even though Werner is not in it, he is still a character, asking questions and narrating the film with his off the wall views of the world (the best are the lines about the blight of there being a yoga studio at the base in Antarctica!). And the people up there all seem a little bit insane in their own way, all poets and artists, and yet doing things they never trained for, lawyers working in greenhouses and the like. These people really seem like Werner’s kind of people, and that is why the documentary works so well. Not only do we see the amazing creatures, but we see these strange and quirky people and the world they live in.

Werner travels with his cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger to Antarctica, starting with McMurdo Station, the biggest settlement on the continent. Here they learn about the changing ice, and see the encampment that Werner seems to hate. They then take field training to be able to go out on the ice, and head to a seal camp.

At the seal camp we hear unearthly recordings of the seal calls underwater, which sound like something from a Pink Floyd album.

Next they go to the diving camp where they meet research diver Henry Kaiser and see footage of his trips into the other world under the ice. They are studying a strange organism that lives in the sand and shows almost an intelligence.

They travel to the original camp of Enest Shackleton.

Then they see a Penguin going the wrong way to his certain death, and talk to a scientist named David Ainley about it. They do not know why some penguins just go the wrong way and travel hundreds of miles to their deaths.

Werner travels to Mount Erebus, and active volcano that is easier to study than many in more volatile countries. They have cameras set up and scientific equipment, and we see footage of an earlier attempt to try and get into the base, that ended with wounded scientists. There are frozen ice tunnels created by steam called Fumaroles, and they go deep into one.

We go under the north pole, where there is a frozen sturgeon and ice carvings in the ice walls.

Scientists launch a helium balloon with a neutrino detector, covered in Hawaiian artwork and talk to the chief scientist Peter Corham.

Along the way they see the people who have drifted to Antarctica. People who do entertainment shows, and philosophers who work maintenance. A man who is descended from Mayan royalty as all his fingers are the same length.

A really interesting bunch that match the strangeness of the undersea footage that highlights the film, and was the reason for Werner’s visit.

••••

The film is worth seeing for the seal and underwater footage, but the most interesting thing is the trip into the mind of filmmaker Werner Herzog, because he has some strange ideas about people and life, and he does not hold anything back. A very interesting man.

Check this film out.