One of the most impressive sights in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. is Henry, a giant African bush elephant shot in Angola in 1955. At four meters, Henry is much taller than a typical bush elephant; the origin of its size remains a mystery.
Among Henry’s fans is Steve Boyes, a South African naturalist. Boyes has dedicated a large part of his life to searching for “ghost elephants” like Henry in the Angolan highlands. He believes the region is home to several such giant elephants, they just haven’t been discovered yet.
Boyes’s latest expedition begins in Namibia and continues from there almost 2,000 km to the north, all the way to the highlands. The distance is covered first by jeep, then by motorbike and finally on foot. The team of explorers includes researchers, master trackers and legendary director Werner Herzog, who is there to document the journey.
Herzog’s camera captures the local environment and culture, but also takes a critical look at the expedition and its meaningfulness. Boyes himself is a quintessential Herzogian dreamer, whose determination contains traces of madness. The director admires his childlike enthusiasm but mourns mankind’s insistence on solving each mystery, on reducing all myths to facts. Herzog’s final judgment on Boyes is fitting: “he would now have to live with his success.”
Jussi Tarvainen
Language: English
- Name in Original Language: Ghost Elephants
- Director: Werner Herzog
- Country: USA
- Year: 2025
- Length: 99 min
- Cinematography: Brian Little, Eric Averdung, Rafael Leyva
- Editing: Marco Capalbo
- Music: Ernst Reijseger
- Production: The Roots Production, Service (Ariel Leon Isacovitch), Skellig Rock (Werner Herzog), Sobey Road Entertainment (Brian Nugent)
Showtimes:
- Cinema Artis, hall 1: Wednesday, 4.02 - 17.00
- Cinema Sõprus: Saturday, 7.02 - 17.30