Fata Morgana

Synopsis

Shot across the southern Sahara Desert in Algeria, Mali, and Kenya, the film presents an intoxicating, hallucinatory vision of an alien desert post-apocalyptic Earth divided into three movements—Creation, Paradise, and The Golden Age—juxtaposing shimmering mirages of crashed airplanes, carcasses, and oil refineries with readings from the Mayan creation myth Popol Vuh (narrated by Lotte Eisner) and songs by Leonard Cohen and Blind Faith. Werner Herzog and Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein's mesmerizing avant-garde visual poem.