Where the Green Ants Dream

I'm invariably surprised when I mention this film to friends that they say they've never seen it. Werner Herzog in Australia? C'mon. How could the great German director of Wozzeck, Nosferatu and other Gothic classics concern himself with a very oblique tale of a development project impeded by Aboriginal Australians who contend that disturbing the green ants dreams by ripping up their habitat will likewise rip the fabric of the universe? The government solution is to give them an airplane which one of the younger members of their tribe eventually manages to take off with a number of the elders on board. Looking over the cast, you likely not recognize names that most of us who don't follow Aussie films know; some of us may know Bruce Spence from the Mad Max films who plays a geologist, but there are many Australian Aborigines. A poignant moment is seen in the court room scene where one Aborigine rises to speak and the judge asks for a translation, only to be told the men is called "the Mute" because there's no one left who understands his tribal language.

The overall effect of the film is wonderfully Herzog with a surrealistic portrayal of the clash of old and new, progress versus conservation and fraught with cultural miscommunication. I really recommend this film for your viewing.

I also remember this film as life-changing. I saw it at the TIFF many years ago and was baffled by it.

There is a small scene in an elevator that I remember as a transcendent cinematic moment.

Like so many of Herzog's films, it is deeply moving for reasons that aren't easy to put your finger on - often with Herzog it's an odd juxtaposition, an awkward silence, a strange edit, an inappropriate flash of humour or horror that produce a flash of insight.

This film, at the time, seemed conventional by Herzog's standards, but I still left the theatre feeling slightly drugged, always a good sign.

I hadn't thought that Herzog was capable of making a good film without Kinski, only some pretentious artsy thing like Heart of Glass.

Well, Green Ants proves me wrong. This is a great film that shows the conflict between white and aboriginal civilizations without being sentimental or condescending to either side. With Hollywood we'd some cliché about noble savages and suchlike, but here you get the feeling of dealing with real human beings.

Oh yeah, the plot deals with an Australian mining company that wants to blow up a sacred site to do mineral exploitation. Herzog avoids stereotyped poses to bring out the situation as it would occur in real life. Plus you get some great shots of the outback.

I plan to lend this one to all my aboriginal friends!

This film has been ignored by the mainstream media. It portrays the futile struggle of an Aboriginal tribe against the needs of civilization. From the first confrontation you know how it will end, but you keep hoping that perhaps the mindless and soul-less rush of progress won't wipe out one more culture.

Herzog captures the story in a series of vignettes, each one expressing a fleeting thought or detail.

At one point Bruce Spence is trying to explain his theory of space and time to one of the elders, who rebukes him. His reply to the elder is "I'm trying to understand, really I am." The movie is a predecessor to "Rabbit Proof Fence". It makes you realize that as a society we just don't get it.

I highly recommend it.

Some idiot claims that this movie is horrible but I would argue that this he/she is mistaken. None of the dialog is improvised though the performances are raw which the previous reviewer might be confusing with improvisation. Most fans of Herzog are also aware that Herzog's dialog is highly stylized and often surreal which may, to close minded people, be misconstrued as trite or childish. Perhaps it is something one has to get used to or maybe Herzog films are best left to those who are willing to view something out of the ordinary. Of course, not everyone will like everything, but opinions that are expressed should only come from people who are informed as an uninformed opinion is like showing a dog a card trick.