Werner Herzog
Lektionen in Finsternis
(Lessons of Darkness)
- Production Year 1992
- color / Durationcolor / 52 min.
- IN Number IN 3574
Shortly before the end of the Second Gulf War, Iraqi troops set fire to oil fields as they retreated from Kuwait. Herzog and his cinematographer sought to capture the incomprehensible, the apocalypse, with cinematic means and to show what was left behind.
LESSONS OF DARKNESS is a unique documentary. Legendary director Werner Herzog depicts the apocalyptic landscape of the burning oil fields in Kuwait after the Gulf War. Through the absence of a narrator and the use of only very few interviews combined with sophisticated visual aesthetics, Herzog lets the images speak for themselves without going into politics or geography. Thanks to this style, the film is removed from its documentary character and the earthly locations appear otherworldly.
(Courtesy of Filmportal)
Right at the beginning, Herzog seems to want to distance himself from the earth. He defines the place as a “planet in our solar system.” The landscape and the architecture seem alien, almost uninhabitable, as if from a foreign star. The famous archival images of the nightly bombing raids that Herzog inserts here remain, as it were, anonymous. We see a horror film from reality, and the horror extends far beyond the moment when the conflagrations are brought under control. The filmmaker observes how the earth is systematically rendered uninhabitable. “Did people live here?” asks Herzog from off-screen. Anyone who knew nothing about Kuwait and Iraq would find it difficult to identify the settings.
(29.07.2022)
- Production Country
- Germany (DE)
- Production Period
- 1991/1992
- Production Year
- 1992
- color
- color
- Aspect Ratio
- 1:1,66
- Duration
- Medium-Length Film (31 to 60 Min.)
- Type
- Documentary
- Genre
- Anti-war / War Film
- Topic
- Film History
- Scope of Rights
- Nichtexklusive nichtkommerzielle öffentliche Aufführung (nonexclusive, noncommercial public screening),Keine TV-Rechte (no TV rights)
- Notes to the Licence
- Hinweis: Vorführungen der Werner Herzog Filme außerhalb der Goethe-Institute im Ausland, z.B. in herkömmlichen Kinos, müssen im Vorfeld mit der Werner Herzog Stiftung abgesprochen werden.
- Licence Period
- 14.12.2026
- Permanently Restricted Areas
- Germany (DE), Austria (AT), Switzerland (CH), Liechtenstein (LI), Alto Adige, Belgium (BE), Luxembourg (LU), Italy (IT)
- Available Media
- DCP, Blu-ray Disc, DVD
- Original Version
- German (de)
DCP
- Subtitles
- German (partly), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Italian (it), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Turkish (tr), Lithuanian (lt), Hebrew (he)
- Note on the Format
- verschlüsselt
Blu-ray Disc
- Subtitles
- German (partly), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Italian (it), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Turkish (tr), Lithuanian (lt)
DVD
- Subtitles
- German (partly), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Italian (it), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Turkish (tr)