Werner Herzog follows South African naturalist Dr Steve Boyes as he pursues a longstanding hypothesis that a hitherto undiscovered mega-species of giant 'ghost' elephants survives on the highland plateau of Angola. Boyes consults Kalahari bush trackers in Namibia and leads an expedition to obtain DNA samples to compare with the Fenykovi elephant at the Smithsonian. The team secures permission from a tribal king in a ceremonial exchange and conducts fieldwork that culminates in provisional success. The film is measured and ironic-free, emphasizing character detail, exotic landscapes, and Herzog's rasping narration celebrating indigenous daily life.
This new film is about South African naturalist Dr Steve Boyes and his mission to discover if there is a hitherto undiscovered mega-species of giant elephants, or ghost elephants, living beyond the human gaze in the vast highland plateau of Angola. He also wants to see if these fugitive elephants if they exist are genetically related to a particular huge elephant, the biggest on record, which is on show at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.
This film may not have the self-destructive craziness and tragicomedy of Herzog's documentary masterpiece Grizzly Man, which was about an amateur enthusiast's doomed desire to live among grizzly bears; in fact the quest that Ghost Elephants describes is perfectly rational and irony free, and finally results in (provisional) success. The film is so rich and exotic, if that word has not been discredited in this context. Herzog's keen eye for the characters and personalities gives it its flavour,
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