THE STORY – A nature documentary by Werner Herzog, following a South African conservationist and his search for a mysterious and elusive herd of ghost elephants in the Angolan Highlands.
THE CAST – Steve Boyes
THE TEAM – Werner Herzog (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 99 Minutes
Premiering out of competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, “Ghost Elephants” is legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog’s latest documentary. The film follows a conservationist on his obsessive search for an elusive tribe of giant elephants. As Herzog himself notes in the press notes, it is, like many of his films, “an exploration of dreams, of imagination, weighed against reality.”
The central figure, and our guide throughout, is South African conservationist Dr. Steve Boyes. Charismatic and curious, Steve is cut from the same cloth as many of Herzog’s past subjects( both real and fictional), defined by obsession and the persistence of dreamers. The documentary begins at the Smithsonian Museum. Steve marvels at what he calls “the greatest elephant ever:” a towering taxidermy specimen known as Henry, or the Fénykövi elephant, named after the Hungarian hunter who shot it in 1955.
Steve believes Henry may have been part of a distinct, long-lost species of massive elephants, dubbed ghost elephants. Determined to prove they exist, he sets out to collect DNA samples for comparison with Henry’s, beginning a journey to Angola. There, he assembles a team of skilled trackers from the San bushmen of Namibia, intent on venturing deep into the Angolan Highlands, a remote region the size of England known locally as the Source of Life for its connection to Africa’s great rivers.
Herzog gives the setup room to breathe, spending time with the three lead trackers and capturing the intricacies of their language of clicks and tones. One early highlight shows the importance of mimicry in San culture, with the lead tracker delivering an uncannily accurate impression of a dying antelope.
The film is full of these detours, the kind Herzog delights in. Among them are a lesson on elephant dung sample collection by DNA expert Jordan Meyer, an unsettling account of the poison the trackers use on antelope that nearly led to a murder, and the unsettling appearance of a spider whose back writhes with venomous offspring.
Steve makes for an ideal Herzog subject. He drifts into existential musings, at one point comparing his obsession with ghost elephants to “Moby Dick,” nudged along by Herzog himself, and wonders if the pursuit might be more meaningful as an unattainable dream. Yet his passion remains infectious, especially in the moments he shares with the bushmen he has worked alongside for over a decade. This relationship leads to one of the film’s most memorable sequences, when Steve and the tribe ceremonially seek the blessing of the King of the Angolan Highlands before their hunt. Herzog films it without commentary, letting the moment unfold with sincerity that pays off beautifully later in the film.
Herzog’s unmistakable narration runs throughout, mixing his signature blend of poetic hyperbole and weary pessimism. He also finds humor in the details. At one point, watching a tracker repairing a musical instrument, he remarks, “I know I shouldn’t romanticize him, but, surrounded by chickens, it can’t get better than this.”
However, not everything works. The film stumbles when Herzog incorporates scenes from the 1966 Italian documentary Africa Addio, which depicts elephants being slaughtered from helicopters. The footage is as horrifying as it sounds, and Herzog’s lack of commentary makes its inclusion feel abrupt and out of place in an otherwise contemplative and tender film.
The final act follows Steve and his trackers on a grueling seven-day drive to the Highlands, where they begin their search. To reveal whether they succeed would spoil the tension, since the film carefully withholds whether ghost elephants are real or mythical. What can be said is that Herzog respects the science, tracking the DNA samples all the way to their analysis in U.S. laboratories, where Steve awaits the results alongside geneticists.
“Ghost Elephants” is further elevated by a gorgeous score from Dutch composer Ernst Reijseger, whose piano and violin arrangements intertwine with traditional songs by a Sardinian male choir that echo like tribal chants. The film is equally enriched by cinematographer Rafael Leyva’s stunning imagery, particularly in a breathtaking sequence where an underwater camera captures an elephant strolling along a riverbed before collapsing into the water to kick its feet in play. The result is an engaging, thoughtful, and deeply moving documentary. It is a study of obsession, a meditation on the space between dreams and reality, and a gift for Herzog devotees.
