TajLV’s review published on Letterboxd:
Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (5) challenge.
Writer-director Werner Herzog has a penchant for filming in locations where nobody else goes, from the depths of the Amazon rain forest to Alaskan tundra and caves deep in the earth. Here, he brings his endless curiosity to the Antarctic to capture images so strange and beautiful, they seem like worlds beyond this Earth.
Many of his subjects here are natural: microscopic single-celled species previously undiscovered, giant seals whose voices sound like the track from a Pink Floyd album, a deranged penguin bent on a suicidal trek across the frozen continent, and eerie colonies of mollusks and sea urchins living at sub-zero temperatures.
But the most interesting aspect of this documentary is its encounters of the human kind. What causes a man or woman to set out for the literal "End of the World?" Who are these nomads who work to travel, who prefer unknown wilds to the safety of society, and who can live for months without nightfall, without family, in bitter cold conditions without warm breezes or refreshing rains?
They are a fascinating lot, the folks Herzog interviews, adventurers and scientists, for the most part, with an unquenchable thirst for new experiences. They are like Herzog himself, in that respect, and he clearly takes pleasure in visiting one of the last unexplored regions of the planet. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary, and its creator dedicated the work to Roger Ebert, who would surely approve. But be forewarned: watch this, and you are likely to begin thinking of "the world" as something quite different from the place where you believe you live.