About

Eclectic and provocative filmmaker Werner Herzog’s documentary follows British airship engineer Dr Graham Dorrington to the spectacular Kaieteur Falls in Guyana.

Dorrington’s boyish enthusiasm to revive an obsolete technology recalls the wonder of man’s earliest dreams of flight. Over the main narrative of his endeavour hangs the looming shadow of a disastrous previous effort a dozen years prior. Meanwhile, Herzog is not afraid to take us on narrative detours. We experience the wonder of flight through local man Marc, who gives white teardrop-shaped airship its titular name.

Like many of Herzog’s documentary and feature protagonists, Dorrington is a dreamer, his plan floating dangerously between fatalistic folly and ethereal ecstasy. An evocative soundtrack, featuring a Dutch cellist, Senegalese singer and Sardinian vocal quintet, subtly increases in intensity to form a soundscape mirroring the film’s stunning photography of the rainforest canopy, its wildlife, its people and the adventure of those who dare to take to the skies.

PG | Mild themes