Directed by Werner Herzog • 1990 • Germany, France
One of director Werner Herzog’s most unsettling explorations of the madness that can seize men’s hearts, this haunting documentary recounts the reign of Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who ruled for eleven years as the self-declared emperor of the Central African Republic, presiding over a regime of shocking corruption. Told through the eyes of everyone from Bokassa’s wives to his political enemies to a foreign journalist he brutally imprisoned, ECHOES FROM A SOMBER EMPIRE is in some ways one of the director’s more straightforward documentaries—though in true Herzog fashion he makes room for everything from the swarming migration of the Christmas Island red crab to the unforgettable sight of a smoking chimpanzee.
Up Next in Directed by Werner Herzog
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Lessons of Darkness
Directed by Werner Herzog • 1992 • Germany
“The collapse of the stellar universe will occur–like creation–in grandiose splendor,” announces the quote (attributed to Blaise Pascal, but actually invented by the director) that begins Werner Herzog’s terrifyingly beautiful rumination on the ravaged ...
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Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Directed by Werner Herzog • 1997 • Germany
Dieter Dengler, a German-American Navy pilot who was shot down over Vietnam in 1966, recounts his experiences as a POW in a Vietnamese prison, tortured and starved until fear and desperation compelled him to make daring escape. Travelling to Laos and Th...
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My Best Fiend
Directed by Werner Herzog • 1999 • Germany
An engrossing look at one of cinema’s most intriguing partnerships, MY BEST FIEND chronicles Werner Herzog’s legendarily volatile friendship with actor Klaus Kinski. As Herzog delves into his history with Kinski in colorful detail—from the flat Kinski o...
