Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
"Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit" (original title)

Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind... See full summary »

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog

Stars:

Fini Straubinger, M. Baaske, Elsa Fehrer

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Fini Straubinger	...	Herself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
M. Baaske
Elsa Fehrer	...	Herself
Heinrich Fleischmann
Rolf Illig	...	Narrator (voice)
Vladimir Kokol
Resi Mittermeier	...	Herself

Storyline

Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since adolescence, and her work on behalf of other deaf and blind people, this film shows how the deaf and blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.

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Plot Keywords:

blind | deaf | disabled | human relationship | isolation

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

22 October 2002 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Land of Silence and Darkness

Filming Locations:

Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Referat für Filmgeschichte, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in I Am My Films - A Portrait of Werner Herzog (1978)

User Reviews

What It Means to be Human

This Herzog film is unorthodox, as usual. It is approximately an hour and a half long, and somewhere in the middle it might seem like the film is not going anywhere. However, those who permit themselves to feel the power of this harrowing documentary will discover in the ending of the film a moment well worth their persistence. What is the purpose of mature film making? I like to think it is the sincere attempt to help us understand what it means to be human. If this generalization is accurate, Herzog's LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS is mature film making. It is literally investigating what it means to be human without the sense of sight and speech. It has a heroic figure in 56-year old Fini Straubinger and a number of other characters who are compellingly mystifying. We wonder what is happening inside the minds of these human beings who are partially cut off from the world around them.