Fata Morgana (1971 film)
Fata Morgana is a 1971 film by Werner Herzog, shot in the Sahara and Sahel during 1968–1969. It blends surreal desert imagery with a narration by Lotte H. Eisner that tells a version of the Mayan creation myth, the Popol Vuh. Much of the footage was captured in long tracking shots from the roof of a Volkswagen camper driven by Herzog, with the crew smoothing the road for smoother movement. The production faced many hardships, including imprisonment in Cameroon because the cameraman’s name resembled that of a wanted mercenary, sandstorms, floods, border-crossing trouble, and Herzog himself being briefly imprisoned and suffering bilharzia.
The project began with an idea to present the images as a science fiction story about a dying planet, but that frame was dropped. Herzog later described the film as taking place on a planet called Uxmal, observed by beings from the Andromeda Nebula who make a film report about it.
The soundtrack mixes classical pieces (Handel, Mozart, Couperin) with songs by Blind Faith, Leonard Cohen, and the Third Ear Band.
The film is divided into three parts: Creation, Paradise, and The Golden Age. In Creation, Eisner narrates a Popol Vuh-like account; in Paradise, people discuss nature and disaster; in The Golden Age, a brothel singer and a matron sing. All three sections end with a powerful mirage.
Release and reception: Fata Morgana premiered at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival and was released in theaters on 19 April 1971. It initially drew hostile reactions, but it later came to be seen as a major work in Herzog’s career and an influential piece of art cinema. It’s regarded as a key film in modern cinema, influencing Herzog’s later work and other directors, with some calling it a precursor to Harmony Korine’s Gummo (1997). In 2013, Cinefamily in West Hollywood screened it with a live performance by the band Earth.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:31 (CET).