Herzog uses spectacular and strange images from the oil-well fires in
Kuwait after the Gulf War as an abstract ecological metaphor in this
extremely odd film. The colours of the scorched, blackened landscape
look like something from another planet - the film is explicitly
fashioned as science fiction. Sharing some qualities with Godfrey
Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi, it's scriptless and overlaid with a hypnotic
score. It's also simply extraordinary to look at. What lessons are
being offered we are meant to infer for ourselves.
