Herdsmen of the Sun

Herdsmen of the Sun

Directed by	Werner Herzog
Produced by	Patrick Sandrin
Narrated by	Werner Herzog
Cinematography	Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein
Edited by	Maximiliane Mainka
Release dates	1989
Running time	52 min.
Country	West Germany
Language	German English Fula

Herdsmen of the Sun (German: Wodaabe - Die Hirten der Sonne) is a 1989 documentary film by Werner Herzog. The film explores the social rituals and cultural celebrations of the Saharan nomadic Wodaabe tribe. Particular focus is given to the Gerewol celebration, which features an elaborate male beauty contest to win wives.

Although the film may be considered to be ethnographic, Herzog commented that: "[My films] are anthropological only in as much as they try to explore the human condition at this particular time on this planet. I do not make films using images only of clouds and trees, I work with human beings because the way they function in different cultural groups interests me. If that makes me an anthropologist then so be it." ^[1] The opening shots of the film depicts a celebration of male beauty, showing males dancing in elaborate costume, accentuating their height and whites of their eyes and teeth to attract females, as we hear "Ave Maria" in the background (a 1901 recording made by the last castrato of the Vatican).

References

↑ Herzog, Werner (2001). Herzog on Herzog. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-20708-1.

External links

Herdsmen of the Sun at the Internet Movie Database

Films directed by Werner Herzog

Feature films	Signs of Life (1968) Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) Fata Morgana (1971) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) Heart of Glass (1976) Stroszek (1977) Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Woyzeck (1979) Fitzcarraldo (1982) Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) Cobra Verde (1987) Scream of Stone (1991) Lessons of Darkness (1992) Invincible (2001) The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) Rescue Dawn (2007) The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (2009) Queen of the Desert (2015)

Documentaries	The Flying Doctors of East Africa (1969) Handicapped Future (1971) Land of Silence and Darkness (1971) The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (1974) How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (1976) La Soufrière (1977) Huie's Sermon (1981) God's Angry Man (1981) Ballad of the Little Soldier (1984) The Dark Glow of the Mountains (1984) Wodaabe – Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) Echoes from a Sombre Empire (1990) Jag Mandir (1991) Bells from the Deep (1993) The Transformation of the World into Music (1994) Death for Five Voices (1995) Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) My Best Fiend (1999) Wings of Hope (2000) Pilgrimage (2001) Ten Thousand Years Older (2002) Wheel of Time (2003) The White Diamond (2004) Grizzly Man (2005) Encounters at the End of the World (2007) Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) Into the Abyss (2011) On Death Row (2012) From One Second to the Next (2013) Lo & Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

Shorts	Herakles (1962) Game in the Sand (1964) The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967) Last Words (1967) Precautions Against Fanatics (1969) No One Will Play with Me (1976) Portrait Werner Herzog (1986) Les Gaulois (1988) La bohème (2009)

Other	Incident at Loch Ness (2004)

See also: Werner Herzog bibliography

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