The location is north-eastern Crete. The police are said to have forcibly removed a man from the small, uninhabited island of Spinalonga, situated just off the Cretan coast. The man himself, a lyre-player, denies every claim made about him. Others speculate about his life.

The musician remains anonymous. In the film’s opening scenes he states: “They tell me to say no, but I won’t even say that. That is my last word!” Then he gazes silently at the camera. Two policemen explain: “We got him from over there. We saved him!“ They repeat this sentence again and again and then say it in unison. It is evident: they have learned these lines off by heart.

Others claim the musician ate cacti, tomatoes, thistles and lizards to survive on Spinalonga, an island which ultimately proved inhospitable for even the Venetians, Saracens and Turks. The story goes that when the leper station on Spinalonga was closed, he simply stayed on the island, until his relatives had him declared legally incapable to act of his own accord and sent the police to forcibly bring him back to the main island. These “witnesses” also repeat their statements several times. To accompany their words, the camera shows us images of the uninhabited, ghostly island with its dilapidated houses and skulls of its deceased inhabitants. We are also told of the origins of the island’s small chapel and of a leper and his wife — he no longer had any legs and she had no arms. They relied on each other to survive.

When the former hermit, still anonymous, joins a Bouzouki player for a duet and a sing-along, he gazes blankly into the distance, as if his thoughts and feelings have swept him away to a far-off place. He refuses to reveal his story. At the end of the film he tells us repeatedly: “I’ll say nothing!”

Some 12 years later, Werner Herzog said of the piece: “LAST WORDS is my favourite out of all the short films: it is a film in Modern Greek and a very audacious work, which practically shot itself over a period of three nights; I edited it in one day.” The light in the film belies this statement; Herzog must have shot the majority of the film during the day.

LAST WORDS was filmed at the same time as SIGNS OF LIFE. In both of these early works, Herzog already displays a remarkable eye for landscape and the transitional nature of human endeavours. We are left to speculate as to what extent the story of the musician, who refuses to say another word, is purely a Herzogian invention and how much is actually true. All available facts would seem to contradict his account. The leper station on Spinalonga was shut down as early as 1950, meaning the man would have spent 17 years alone on an island without its own source of drinking water. However, whether this is fact or fiction remains a secondary issue. The script’s almost liturgical quality, which arises through its repetition, is already a clear indication that this story has been staged, and represents the acoustic equivalent of the visual leitmotif of circular movement that features in many of Herzog’s earlier works. The anonymous musician’s intermittently vehement refusal to speak, places him firmly in the category of revolutionary heroes that are a key element of nearly all of Herzog’s works. But his refusal is only partial and inconsistent. Herzog’s hero has simply opted for a different form of communication — the melodies and lyrics of his music.

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

1967/1968

Production Year

1968

color

b/w

Aspect Ratio

1:1.33

Duration

Short Film (to 30 Min.)

Type

Documentary

Topic

Film History

Available Media

Blu-ray Disc, DVD, DCP

Original Version

German (de)

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Italian (it), Chinese (zh), Arabic (ar), Russian (ru), Turkish (tr)

Note on the Format

Farbe

DVD

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Italian (it), Chinese (zh), Arabic (ar), Russian (ru), Turkish (tr)

Note on the Format

Farbe

DCP

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Italian (it), Turkish (tr), German (full)

Note on the Format

Verschlüsseltes Herzog-Kurzfilm-Sammel-DCP