"Until the End... And Even further"

Istanbul Modern Cinema presents documentaries by veteran filmmaker Werner Herzog

İstanbul Modern Cinema, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Istanbul, presents 24 short and feature-length documentaries made since 1962 by master of German cinema Werner Herzog known for his impressive films. The program Until the End... And Even Further will take place between November 1 – 11 and include films by Herzog to be screened for the first time in Turkey at İstanbul Modern, with topics ranging from volcanic mountains to the depths of the ocean and from African natives to Buddhist priests; the program also includes four documentaries about the director’s life and cinema.

Films by Werner Herzog will be screened under four headings: Creation and Apocalypse, Beginning and End of Language, Warriors and Perpetrators, and Lift-Off and Come-Down. The documentaries about Werner Herzog as a documentary filmmaker and about his life are: Werner Herzog – Filmmaker, a self-portrait of the director; Until the End… And Even Further directed by Peter Buchka; and I am My Films, whose first part was co-directed by Christian Weisenborn and Erwin Keusch and second part by Weisenborn alone.

One of the leading directors of the New German Cinema, Herzog created both heroes with impossible dreams and characters in conflict with nature. Blurring the fine line between fiction and reality and questioning the boundaries of the delicate relationship between nature and humankind, both his documentaries and fictional films bear Herzog’s signature as an “auteur”. One of the most controversial and eccentric filmmakers, the director’s films tend toward black comedy; they have a nihilistic, inhumane side to them. With a career that started with his first film Herakles at the age of 19, the director’s life is full of bizarre anecdotes.

The section Creation and Apocalypse includes: Herakles, a film about bodybuilding;Fata Morgana about a poetic and surreal journey to Africa;La Soufrière, which takes place on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, evacuated in the summer of 1976 because a devastating volcano eruption was predicted; Lessons of Darkness, which shows Iraqi troupes setting fire to oil fields and warehouses while retreating from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War; Wodaabe – Herdsmen of the Sun, which portrays the Saharan nomadic Wodaabe tribe; Bells from the Deep, which follows people who introduce themselves as successors of Jesus in Siberia, claiming that they will save humanity and that they have miraculous healing powers; and Wheel of Time, which documents Buddhist initiations and rituals in Bodhgaya, India, Mount Kailash, Tibet, and Graz, Austria.

The program’s second section,Beginning and End of Language, features: Last Words about a man who plays the lyre who is forced by the police to leave the abandoned island of Spinalonga and move to the island of Crete in the south where he refuses to speak; Land of Silence and Darkness about the lives of deaf and blind people;How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuckwhich explores the frightening but fascinating language of livestock auctioneers in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1976; Huie’s Sermon which follows how Bishop Huie L. Rogers of the Greater Bible Way Temple, located in a squalid and impoverished area in the middle of Brooklyn, influences the church congregation through his enthusiasm; and God’s Angry Man, which documents television evangelist Dr. Gene Scott who for years has been delivering his daily sermons about Christianity before the camera.

The third section, entitled Warriors and Perpetrators, includes: Precautions against Fanatics, in which certain peculiar people at a harness racing track in Daglfing, Munich talk to the camera about protecting the horses from fanatics while in effect there is no danger or threat; The Unprecedented Defense of the Fortress Deutschkreuzabout four young men who find arms, steel helmets, and uniforms in a derelict old castle and start playing a game which they end up taking seriously; Echoes from a Somber Empire, which follows self-proclaimed emperor of the Central African Republic, dictator president Jean-Bédel Bokassa (1921 – 1996); Ballad of the Little Soldier, which documents child soldiers of the Miskito Indians fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in February 1984; and Little Dieter Needs to Flyabout Dieter Dengler who succeeds in escaping after being captured by the Vietcong.

The final section of the program, Lift-Off and Come-Down, features: The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, which portrays the unusual story of former world champion ski-jumper Walter Steiner;Dark Glow of the Mountains, which accompanies famous mountaineers Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander on theirchallenging and extraordinary climbing expedition; Wings of Hope, which takes Juliane Koepcke, the sole survivor of a plane crash in 1971 in Peru, back to the scene of the crash 27 years later; Gesualdo, which explores the life and crimes of composer and prince Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa who was famous for his madrigals and died in his castle in 1613; The White Diamond, which documents aeronautical engineer Graham Dorrington who built himself a small airship to explore the flora and fauna of forest canopies; and The Wild Blue Yonder, which gives the account of an extraterrestrial’s escape from an ice-covered planet in a distant galaxy.

Creation and Apocalypse

Herakles

1962, B&W, 10’

One of the first films of Herzog, Herakles tries to slyly reach beyond the confines of documentary cinema while reflecting a central idea of the director’s films: The revolt of the titans is funny.

Fata Morgana

1970, Color, 79’

A poetic and surreal journey to Africa… Herzog juxtaposes myths of creation with images of destruction in this film which, although devoid of a narrative has coherence nonetheless.

La Soufrière

1976, Color, 31'

In the summer of 1976, a devastating volcanic eruption is predicted in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. The island is evacuated. Herzog and his crew stay in the island and wait for the disaster.

Lessons of Darkness / Lektionen in Finsternis

1992, Color, 55'

Shot from the perspective of an almost alien observer, the film is an exploration of the ravaged oil fields of post-1st Gulf War Kuwait.

Wodaabe – Herdsmen of the Sun / Wodaabe – Hirten der Sonne

1989, Color, 49'

In the film, Herzog explores the social rituals and cultural celebrations of the Saharan nomadic Wodaabe tribe. Particular focus is given to the Gerewol celebration, which features an elaborate male beauty contest to win wives.

Bells from the Deep / Glocken aus der Tiefe

1993, Color, 60'

InBells from the Deep Werner Herzog investigates a Russian faith healer and a man claiming to be the reincarnation of God as was Jesus.

Wheel of Time / Rad der Zeit

2002-2003, Color, 80'

In Wheel of Time, Herzog documents two Kalachakra initiations in the site of the Mahabodhi Temple and the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya India, and in Graz, Austria.

Beginning and End of Language

Last Words / Letzte Worte
1967, Color, 13'

The film tells a story of the last man to leave the abandoned island of Spinalonga, which had been used as a leper colony. The man refused to leave, and so was forcibly removed. He now lives in Crete, where he plays the lyre at nights in a bar, and refuses to speak. Everyone has their own explanation on the issue.

Land of Silence and Darkness / Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit

1971, Color, 85'

Following people in a deaf-blind community, Herzog investigates the nature of human thought and communication. Discussing their struggle to live in the modern world with their disabilities, the film also delves into questions of being, knowledge, and communication that philosophers have been asking for centuries.

How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

1976, Color, 45'

Herzog examines the world championships for cattle auctioneers held in 1976 in Colorado, and reflects his fascination with this language created by an economic system, which he defines as “the last poetry possible, the poetry of capitalism”. For him, this is an "an extreme language ... frightening but quite beautiful at the same time."

Huie’s Sermon / Huie’s Predigt

1980, Color, 42'

Huie Rogers of the Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Brooklyn influences his congregation with his intense sermons. Herzog records one of his sermons objectively.

God’s Angry Man
1980, Color, 44'

Televangelist Dr. Gene Scott has been delivering his sermons in front of TV cameras for years. His main purpose is to raise as much money as possible.

Warriors and Perpetrators

Precautions against Fanatics / Maßnahmen gegen Fanatiker
1969, Color, 12'

People on a horse-racing circuit in Daglfing, Munich talk about protecting the horses from the fans, but there is no danger in sight.

The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz / Die beispiellose Verteidigung der Festung Deutschkreuz

1966, B&W, 15'

Four men break into an abandoned castle that was the site of a battle during World War II. The men find old military uniforms and equipment, and equip themselves for a defense of the castle. They see farmers approaching the castle, but are disappointed when they fail to attack. “A man has to defend himself!”

Echoes from a Sombre Empire / Echos aus einem düsteren Reich

1990, Color, 87'

Tracing Jean-Bédel Bokassa(1921 – 1996), the dictator president and self-proclaimed emperor of the Central African Republic, the film follows American journalist Michael Goldsmith as he revisits the Central African Republic, where he was imprisoned and tortured by Bokassa's regime.

Ballad of the Little Soldier / Ballade vom kleinen Soldaten

1984, Color, 45'

February 1984: Miskito Indians resist against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Werner Herzog and the French photojournalist Denis Reichle take a closer look at the child soldiers of the Miskitos.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly / Flucht aus Laos

1997, Color, 80'

Dieter Dengler grew up in a Germany and emigrated to the US at 18, Dengler to become a pilot. In the film he discusses his service as an American naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Vietcong, recreating many events for the camera.

Lift-Off and Come-Down

Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner / Die große Ekstase des Bildschnitzers Steiner
1973/1974, Color, 47'

The films is the study of the psychology of celebrated ski-jumper Walter Steiner who works as a carpenter for his full-time occupation.

Dark Glow of the Mountains: Gasherbrum / Gasherbrum – Der leuchtende Berg

1984, Color, 45'

Celebrated freestyle mountain climber Reinhold Messner and his partner Hans Kammerlander plan to climb Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I all in one trip without returning to base camp. To reveal the inner motivation of the climbers, Herzog accompanies them in this expedition.

Wings of Hope / Schwingen der Hoffnung – Julianes Sturz in den Dschungel
1999, Color, 66'

In Christmas of 1971, Juliane Koepcke, then 17 was the sole survivor of 93 passengers and crew in a plane crash in the Peruvian rainforest. After her airliner blew up in midair, she survived after falling about 10,000 feet and traveled on foot for 12 days before she was found. 27 years after the incident Herzog, together with Koepcke visit the scenes of her flight, crash, and escape from the jungle.

Gesualdo / Gesualdo – Tod für fünf Stimmen

1995, Color, 60'

Born in 1560 in Napples, composer and prince Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa was famous for his madrigals. But he was also known for his personality, his cursed castle, and his murder of his wife and her lover.

The White Diamond
2004, Color, 87'

Airship engineer Dr. Graham Dorrington embarks on a trip to the giant Kaieteur Falls in the heart of Guyana, hoping to fly his helium-filled invention above the tree-tops. But this logistic effort will not be without risk. With the expedition is Werner Herzog, setting out now with a new prototype of the airship into the Lost World of the pristine rain forest of this little explored area of the world.

The Wild Blue Yonder

2005, Color, 81'

An alien narrates the story of his dying planet, his and his people's visits to Earth and Earth's man-made demise, while human astronauts attempt to find an alternate planet for surviving humans to live on.

On Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog Filmmaker

1986, Color, 30'

A self-portrait documentary that brings together parts from the director’s films and documentary scenes in which Herzog visits Lotte Eisner, legendary film critic and historian, in Paris.

Until the End… And Even Further / Bis ans Ende... und dann noch weiter - Die ekstatische Welt des Filmemachers: Werner Herzog

Director: Peter Buchka
1988, Color, 60'

A Werner Herzog portrait that includes comments from the director and scenes from his films.

I am My Films – Part 1 / Was ich bin sind meine Filme – Teil 1

Directors: Christian Weisenborn, Erwin Keusch

1976-78, Color, 93'

Christian Weisenborn and Werner Herzog know each other for more than 40 years. Weisenborn‘s first film on Werner Herzog covers Herzog's beginning as a filmmaker.

I am My Films, Part 2, 30 Years Later/ Was ich bin sind meine Filme – Teil 2... nach 30 Jahren

Director: Christian Weisenborn

2009/10, Color, 97'

As a sequel to his first film, Christian Weisenborn visits Herzog in his Los Angeles home 30 years later and talks to him about Werner Herzog as a documentarian of the past 30 years.