Country: USA
Year: 2011
Duration: 106'
Eight days before Michael Perry is executed, Herzog meets with the man, who was condemned to death for a murder he committed with Jason Burkett, who instead was given a life sentence. The reconstruction of the crime, the encounters with relatives and friends of the victim and of the murderers, the testimony – including that of the prison guard who had a nervous breakdown after having assisted the victims of over 120 executions – shows the reality of their context and sounds the depths of the human soul. “The films are not an apology for the committed crimes.?It is also clear that the crimes of the persons in my films are monstrous, but the perpetrators are not monsters. They are human. For this reason, I treat them with respect. The balance, the right tone, in the dialogues is essential: there is no activist’s anger from my side, although my position is clear; there is no false sentimentality; there is no commiseration; there is no chumminess; but there is a sense of solidarity with the inmates. And, above all, there is a strong sense that these individuals are human beings.”
Biography
film director
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (Munich, Germany, 1942) grew up in a small town in Bavaria and debuted with the short film Herakles in 1962, before going on to study history, literature and theatre at the University of Munich. Since then, he has made over fifty films, including Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Lessons of Darkness, Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the World, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. He is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest filmmakers alive and has received several prestigious awards. He has also participated to the Torino Film Festival, presenting Grizzly Man in 2005, Into the Abyss in 2011, and The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft in 2022.
FILMOGRAFIA
Lebenszeichen (Segni di vita, 1968), Fata Morgana (id., 1971), Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit (Paese del silenzio e dell’oscurità, doc, 1971), Aguirre, der Zom Gottes (Aguirre, furore di Dio, 1972), Jeder für und Gott gegen alle (L'enigma di Kaspar Hauser, 1974), Herz aus Glas (Cuore di vetro, 1976), Stroszek (La ballata di Stroszek, 1977), Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu, principe della notte, 1979), Woyzeck (id., 1979), Fitzcarraldo (id., 1982), Lektionen in Finsternis (Apocalisse nel deserto, mm, doc., 1992), The White Diamond (Il diamante bianco, doc, 2004), Grizzly Man (id., doc, 2005), The Wild Blue Yonder (L’ignoto spazio profondo, doc, 2005), Encounters at the End of the World (id., doc, 2007), My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (id., 2009), Cave of Forgotten Dreams (id., 2010), Into the Abyss - A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life (doc., 2011), Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (Lo and Behold, doc, 2016), Queen of the Desert (2015), Into the Inferno (Dentro l’inferno, doc., 2016), Salt and Fire (2016), Family Romance, LLC (2019), Meeting Gorbachev (Herzog incontra Gorbaciov, 2018), Nomad: in the Foosteps of Bruce Chatwin (Nomad - In cammino con Bruce Chatwin, 2019), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (Fireball - Messaggeri dalle stelle, 2020), The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (doc, 2022).
Cast
& Credits
regia, sceneggiatura/director, screenplay
Werner Herzog
fotografia/cinematography
Peter Zeitlinger
montaggio/film editing
Joe Bini
musica/music
Mark Degli Antoni
suono/sound
Eric Spitzer
interpreti/cast
Richard Lopez, Michael Perry, Damon Hall, Lisa Stotler-Balloun, Charles Richardson, Jason Burkett, Jared Talbert, Amanda West, Delbert Burkett, Melyssa Thompson-Burkett, Fred Allen
produttore/producer
Erik Nelson
produzione/production
Creative Differences, Skellig Rock, Spring Hill, Werner Herzog Film, Discovery Id
vendita all’estero/world sales
Zdf Enterprises
TFF
prizes
