BAMcinématek: Fitzcarraldo

Directed by Werner Herzog
With Klaus Kinski, Claudia Cardinale

(1982) 158min

Crazed opera impresario Fitzcarraldo (Kinski, in a career-defining performance) is pitted against the South American jungle as he struggles to finance and build an opera house in the rainforest. Capped by a stunning set-piece in which Fitzcarraldo employs hundreds of natives to drag a steamship across the land to the river, this insane masterpiece of obsession features an original score by frequent Herzog collaborators Popol Vuh.