Les ailes de l'espoir

Another remarkable Herzog doc, about Juliane Koepcke, the 17 year-old sole survivor of a 1971 plane crash in the Peruvian jungle. 27 years later, Herzog takes her to visit the crash site and retrace her nine-day journey to rescue. The tale has many fascinating elements, not the least of which is the fact that Herzog himself was almost on that flight, on his way to film AGUIRRE. Then there's the man with a special role in the story, and who almost lost his life helping with the documentary. The film contains the usual enigmatic Herzogian touches like his poetic narration and strange detours. One of my favorite moments was actually one of the least relevant: a minute is taken to film a young girl delighted with the camera. An upbeat glimmer of innocence in this story of someone facing the abyss and emerging through the other side, haunted forever but still alive.

Although google categorised this film under the genre of adventure, it doesn't really fit in it. It's common for a documentary to show some real footages or images to make the film more impactful, but herzog does none of that.

Firstly, there weren't enough picture of videos to depict the crash. Werner instead takes us on a journey that Julianne has been through by revisiting the same crash sites. I personally found this way of storytelling in a documentary to be more impactful and gripping than merely showing images and elaborate narrations of the events.

The documentary isn't just about how and when the events spanned out, rather it's more about survival and the gruelling journey Julianne went through.

On December 24, 1971, Juliane Koepcke was a passenger on LANSA Flight 508 when the aircraft was struck by lightning, resulting in a descent of 10,000 feet into the Amazon rainforest. Remarkably, upon impact with the ground, she survived, and her extraordinary tale of resilience was far from over.

Juliane Koepcke reflected, "What really happened is something you can only try to reconstruct in your mind." She recounted the sounds of passengers screaming and the roar of the engine until all that remained was the rush of wind in her ears.

"I suddenly realized that I was no longer within the cabin," Koepcke stated. "I found myself outside, exposed to the elements. I had not exited the aircraft; rather, the aircraft had abandoned me."

Still secured in her seat, Juliane Koepcke became aware that she was plummeting from the plane. Shortly thereafter, she lost consciousness.

This documentary by Werner Herzog explores the wreckage of the aircraft and meticulously reconstructs her harrowing journey through the jungle.

By the way, Werner Herzog was supposed to be on the same flight as Juliane. He was bumped from the flight at the last minute!

Wings of Hope (2000)

**** (out of 4)

A rather amazing, harrowing and inspirational documentary from Werner Herzog about a 1971 plane crash in a South American jungle. A plane loaded with 92 passengers crashed in this jungle and only a seventeen-year-old woman survived. This woman, Juliane Koepcke, had to fight her way through the jungle before being found twelve days after the crash. Herzog takes this woman back to the scene of the crash and they hike through the jungle showing us the paths she took to live. This is a brilliant documentary that has a claustrophobic feel because it's simply amazing that this woman would survive the crash and it's even more amazing that she'd be able to find her way out of this jungle. Another curious note is that Herzog himself was getting ready to film Aguirre, the Wrath of God and was going to take this same flight but it was sold out. Seeing the woman going through the wreck site was also fascinating but depressing considering all the things we see.

To understand the genius of Werner Herzog, one need look no further than this quirky documentary.

By sheer stroke of luck, I attended a talk by Beat Presser (a photographer collaborator of Herzog's in the seminal Fitzcarraldo). The talk was entitled, "Werner At Work", where we'd see Beat's exclusive footage of Herzog during his filming sessions of Cobra Verde, Invincible and yes, Wings of Hope.

During one presentation, we saw the footage Beat shot of Herzog filming the "Wings of hope" woman. She was seen wandering around the Zoology Museum where she worked. The woman merely she strolled along the shelves of animal specimens. She's also trying her earnest best to follow the subtle nudges from the man behind the camera. In Beat's footage, those shots were actually very matter of fact. Its just the woman, trailed by Herzog, a camera man and a sound guy. But Herzog's midas touch (read: embellishment) transformed those shot footage into a re-enactment of the woman's "dream sequence' in the final take of Wings of Hope. Wow. I couldn't stop laughing.

Herzog is such a zany genius. I love the guy. Love him!!!