Conquest of the Useless

Herzog's journal of the 2-3 years it took to film Fitzcarraldo in the Peruvian jungle. His vision to tow a steam ship across a hill is a mad endeavour and at occasion he's the only one still believing in it. The jungle and it's inhabitants seem to fight them at every occasion with unpredictability and ferocity. There's culture shock, political upheavals, murder, sickness, floods, destruction, frustration, failure. But through Herzog's eyes we get to see the beauty of all that cruelty, in his elaborate and poetic descriptions of the jungle's animals and nature.

Part fever dream, part film chronicle, this is an entrancing insight into an artistic mind that doesn't compromise and fights against all odds to realize his vision. Plus his tales of the raging Klaus Kinski are highly entertaining.