Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £6.99 a month

Fata Morgana
Herzog’s intense, dreamlike mediation on desert life as if seen by an alien.
Director: Werner Herzog
Overview
Partly mystical, partly absurd, this early film by Werner Herzog evokes the chimerical visions of a desert mirage, re-framing and making strange different documentary images of life and decay in the Sahara. Film historian Lotte Eisener reads a Mayan creation myth and unlikely musical choices further twist and confuse our sense of place.
Related

Watership Down Watership Down
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1978 92 mins Director: Martin Rosen
An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation.

Requiem for a Village Requiem for a Village
Documentary 1975 68 mins Director: David Gladwell
The idyllic, pastoral past of a Suffolk village is reborn through memory in this extraordinary, little-known film from director David Gladwell.

Un Chien Andalou Un Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 mins Silent Director: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.

Eden and After Eden and After
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1969 98 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.

Gallivant Gallivant
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1997 100 mins Director: Andrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting takes a terrific, twisting coastal tour of the UK with his family.

Sebastiane Sebastiane
Historical drama 1976 85 mins Director: Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress
A distinctly bold and sensual reclaiming of gay history, Jarman here tells the sexually intense story of the 4th-century martyr.

M M
Crime 1931 111 mins Director: Fritz Lang
Peter Lorre is unforgettable as the compulsive child murderer on the run from both police and criminals alike, in Fritz Lang’s seminal crime film.

The Marriage of Maria Braun The Marriage of Maria Braun
Drama 1978 120 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
With a blazing star performance from Hanna Schygulla in the title role, this was the greatest critical and commercial success of Fassbinder’s career.

Germany, Pale Mother Germany, Pale Mother
Drama 1980 151 mins Director: Helma Sanders-Brahms
Set during the Third Reich and its aftermath, this lyrical, harrowing tale of love and war is a neglected classic of New German cinema.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Drama 1972 124 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder's visual and verbal extravaganza about a successful but lonely fashion designer who falls in love with a beautiful younger woman.

Fitzcarraldo Fitzcarraldo
Historical drama 1981 157 mins Director: Werner Herzog
One of Werner Herzog's most acclaimed and audacious films, Fitzcarraldo tells the incredible story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an opera-loving fortune hunter who dreams of bringing opera to the heart of the Peruvian jungle.

Fear Eats the Soul Fear Eats the Soul
Melodrama 1974 93 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder’s international breakthrough, this unconventional love story combines lucid social analysis with devastating emotional power.

Heart of Glass Heart of Glass
Comedy 1976 94 mins Director: Werner Herzog
An 18th-century Bavarian community falls apart when the local glassmaker dies, in Werner Herzog's mesmerising drama for which he famously directed his actors under hypnosis.

Land of Silence and Darkness Land of Silence and Darkness
Documentary 1971 85 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s profound and deeply moving documentary about the experiences of a community of deaf-blind people.

Fitzcarraldo Fitzcarraldo
Historical drama 1981 157 mins Director: Werner Herzog
One of Werner Herzog's most acclaimed and audacious films, Fitzcarraldo tells the incredible story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an opera-loving fortune hunter who dreams of bringing opera to the heart of the Peruvian jungle.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Biopic 1974 109 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s poetic account of the historical character who captivated 19th-century Nuremberg after emerging from isolation after 16 years in a cellar.

The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner
Documentary 1975 46 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s moving portrait of a record-breaking ski jumper.

Aguirre, Wrath of God Aguirre, Wrath of God
Historical drama 1972 94 mins Director: Werner Herzog
This early masterpiece from Werner Herzog stars Klaus Kinski as a power-crazed explorer in sixteenth-century South America who leads a band of conquistadors through the Amazon in search of El Dorado.

The Living Wake The Living Wake
Comedy 2007 92 mins Director: Sol Tyron
Accompanied by his faithful assistant Mills (Jesse Eisenberg), self-proclaimed genius K. Roth Binew (Mike O’Connell) decides to go out in style following a terminal prognosis – staging a living wake.

War Pony War Pony
Drama 2022 115 mins Director: Gina Gammell and Riley Keough
The lives of two Oglala Lakota boys interlock in this coming-of-age drama set against the backdrop of South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.
Chocolat Chocolat
Drama 1988 100 mins Director: Claire Denis
Claire Denis' fully formed debut offers a child’s-eye-view of racial and sexual tension that bubbles with unspoken desires.

Paterson Paterson
Comedy 2016 118 mins Director: Jim Jarmusch
Adam Driver excels in this effortlessly charming tale of a bus driver poet in New Jersey, filmed with typically groovy elan by Jim Jarmusch.

Eat the Night Eat the Night
Thriller 2024 107 mins Director: Caroline Poggi and Johnathan Vinel
Siblings find passion and peril online and in the real world, in this visually electric French drama.

Bound Bound
Gangster 1996 109 mins Director: Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski
A seductive neo-noir and cult classic centring on lesbian desire in dangerous circumstances.