Encounters at the End of the World

For over a year, Encounters at the End of the World has travelled the festival route, and its many awards have culminated in a much deserved Oscar nomination. And while Werner Herzog’s latest documentary shares its location with previous Oscar winner March of the Penguins, there is no real comparison - the only penguin here is a suicidal one. What else would one expect from the man who once ate his own shoe? Encounters is a triumph, encompassing Herzog’s flair for capturing the bizarre in both nature and humanity. With his dry humour and his blatant appreciation for anything out of the ordinary, the people he meets, those who intended to “jump off the margin of the map”, are as eccentric as the director himself. Meanwhile his ethereal, alien underwater imagery is a testament to his abilities as a filmmaker, and a reminder that we still know staggeringly little about our planet.