Burden of Dreams

classified 15
Film

Please note: This was screened in May 2025

Director
Les Blank
Cast
Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale
Details
95 mins, 1982, USA
Primary language
English, Spanish

Cast members (Jason Robards Jr., Mick Jagger) drop like flies, a prop ship is trapped in the rapids, and legendary director Werner Herzog makes impossible demands in this riveting account of the shooting of his most ambitious film Fitzcarraldo.

Burden of Dreams captures legendary director Werner Herzog’s filming of his most ambitious film, in which an entrepreneur (Klaus Kinski) endeavours to push a steamship over a mountain to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle, one thousand miles away from civilisation.

Featuring visceral interviews with Herzog, Burden of Dreams (which was held by Roger Ebert as “one of the most remarkable documentaries ever made about the making of a movie”) depicts the full range of Herzog’s unflinching vision spanning four years of production, despite all odds, such as the lead actor (Jason Robards) who had to leave the set after 40% of the shoot was completed.

Most notoriously, the film features a jaw-dropping sequence featuring Herzog requiring hundreds of native Campa, Machiguenga, and Aguaruna people to pull a full-size, 320-ton steamship over a small mountain.

The result is an extraordinary document of the filmmaking process and a unique look into the single-minded mission of one of cinema’s most fearless directors.

4K Restoration executive produced by Harrod Blank, restoration by Anthony Matt, audio restoration by Nick Bergh, colour by Paul Cope, and new subtitles by Maureen Gosling.


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