Land of Silence and Darkness

Throughout his long and illustrious career, Herzog has given frequent voice to those who, by accident or design, find themselves in the margins of society. Where less compassionate filmmakers might mock, Herzog instead celebrates the fortitude of those who find themselves isolated from the mainstream, even at this early stage in his body of work.

Documentary Land of Silence and Darkness is evidence of such compassion, following Fini Straubinger, blind and deaf for most of her life, who came to terms with her condition by reaching out to those similarly afflicted and bringing them into the world as participants in all it has to offer. Herzog captures reactions to a first flight and to a day at the zoo, but it is in the quieter moments that he paints a deeper and more profound picture in this exceptionally moving testament.