Fata Morgana
Directed by Werner Herzog
Written by Werner Herzog
1971/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Perhaps I seek certain utopian things, space for human honour and respect, landscapes not yet offended, planets that do not exist yet, dreamed landscapes.  —  Werner Herzog

If you are going to watch a film in which nothing happens, it might as well be directed by Werner Herzog.

Herzog, his cinematographer Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein and a small crew wandered around the deserts of North Africa for 13 months taking pictures of things that interested them in 1968 and 1969.  Herzog came up with the concept for the film after shooting was completed.  

There is no narration other than a reading of a Mayan creation myth in the first time of the film nor are there any interviews. Mostly it is long takes through desert landscapes. But this is no Lawrence of Arabia desert.   There are shots of oil refineries, dead animals, an other evidence of the long reach of Western civilization.

Herzog has claimed that this is the film’s structure. “The planet Uxmal is discovered by beings from the Andromeda Nebula. They produce a cinematic report in three parts. “The Creation”: a plane lands, primeval landscapes unfold, burning vents and oil tanks come into the picture. “Paradise”: in the grip of nature and the remains of a civilization, people talk about the disaster. “The Golden Age”: a brothel singer and a matron sing. All three parts end with the greatest of all hallucinations, a mirage.” He obviously has a better imagination than I do.

I actually watched this because of the Leonard Cohen soundtrack. While Cohen’s songs “That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and “Suzanne” are used in a portion of the film, the majority is scored with other (pretty good) music. Can’t recommend this except to completists.