Werner Herzog goes in a quest for Pachyderm

In films like Grizzly,, Aguirre, the anger of God And FitzcarraldoWerner Herzog has been attracted to obsessive men whose pride encourages them to believe that they can tame nature, only to find nature resistant to human control. The biologist of South African conservation, Dr. Steve Boyes, is a worthy addition to this motivated eccentric cannon, his history in environmental sciences without ever excluding the philosophical and spiritual reflections of a dreamer shamelessly.

In Ghost elephantsHerzog accompanies the boyes on a tray distant from the Highlands in Angola in search of a herthical herd of giant elephants, which is exactly what you want the German iconoclastic eternally curious, eternally curious.

National Geographic, which has an association established with Boyes, acquired streaming rights on the doc on the eve of its first at the Venice Film Festival – where Herzog received a golden lion for career. It will be available to broadcast on Disney + and Hulu in 2026.

The starting point is the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, where the largest elephant ever recorded is exposed in the form of a taxidermia, officially named – with a questionable taste – the Fénykövi Elephant, after the Hunter Hungarian who shot and killed in 1955. More affectionately, he is known at least in Henry, 11 -toned boyes deceased.

For a decade, Boyes continued his theory that the Mega-Pachyderm belongs to a subspecies that still exists in an elusive herd wandering in the high wetlands of Angola, an area that is roughly inhabited about the size of England and accessible only with great persistence. According to Boyes, this is one of the most biodiversity habitats on the planet, and all the species that he and his team have discovered are unique in the region.

The aim of the mission is to obtain the DNA of the Angolan elephants and to return to the Smithsonian for analysis, in the hope of retracing a link to Henry. It is not quite clear how Boyes arrived at his theories, but Herzog is more interested in the Sisyphée quest – he compares him to go after the white whale – than science.

In the characteristic idiosyncratic commentary which has become a signature of his non-fiction work, Herzog undresses on the boyes and his ghost elephants: “It does not matter for him if they exist or are a dream. Maybe it’s the future of all animals. To be a dream. Be a memory. “

Punctuating the doc with enchanting underwater images of elephants splashing around swimming, or with dazzling sequences in rapid moving from the enveloping night sky, Herzog follows the months of preparation for the trip, the long hike through the almost impracticable peat bogs – first in 4WDS, then on their destination.

Their first judgment is Namibia, where they register Aboriginal Kalahari hunters, San Bushmen. They observe a dance ritual all night when the master trackers enter a state of trance, allowing the spirits of the elephants to enter them.

It quickly becomes clear that Herzog is just as fascinated by the poetic and magical side of the quest than the result – probably even more. Being among what is supposed to be the first people on earth, from which we all got off, triggers his imagination but also his funny and fanciful side.

Looking at a tribal elder seated on the cracked ground fixing a string instrument while the chickens rush around him, the director reprimands for him but cannot help rotentiser: “I think that cannot become better than that.” He also notes without mockery that if the ancestral lifestyle prevails in this egalitarian society, it is not uncommon to see a bushman on a mobile phone.

The convoy develops with the addition of Angolan trackers of the Luchazi tribe, known for their in -depth knowledge of the ecosystem, in particular around the Okavango river basin. They refer to the destination of the expedition platform as the “source of life”.

They also speak of the heritage of the 27 -year -old Angolan civil war, during which countless elephants, hippopotams and other majestic creatures have been slaughtered for sport or blown by terrestrial mines. Images of the Italian documentary from 1966 Goodbye to AfricaA herd of elephants killed by ground hunters and elite shooters in helicopters, is painful to look at.

The last section can prove to be anti -limatic for some, given the ephemeral images captured of elephants who would have inhabited the Highlands for 5,000 years. But there is enough forensic evidence to obtain the required DNA samples, from piles or brands of trees where they scratch, leaving traces of hair. Boyes estimates from a set of markings that the elephant measures at least 11 feet high.

In its inimitably impassive and cryptic mode, Herzog comments: “Steve should live with its success.” What comes after the realization of a dream, he seems to ask. The director maintains a certain degree of ambivalence on the fourth with wild eyes and his need to disentangle the mysteries of nature. But the kinship of traveler colleagues seems obvious in the director’s will and subject to thinking outside a purely scientific framework.

This aspect appears during a visit to the tribal king of the region, whose authorization must be granted to follow the elephants. With extinct rates, the king shares the myth of origin of his Nkangala people, that a little elephant lost his skin while bathed in the river and a woman emerged, who married and procreated with his ancestors. Inference is that beyond the simple coexistence with the magnificent beast, the tribe is its descendants.

Boyes nods in accordance with the tribal belief that the disappearance of elephants would be a warning sign of the disappearance of human life. This persistent note of myth and melancholy characterizes the ways in which Ghost elephants Gets out of the limits of nature -based nature documents. It makes a fantastic story.