Werner Herzog on dreams, 'Ghost Elephants,' and his working method

Born in Munich just before the Allies bombed the city, Werner Herzog and his family fled to a remote Bavarian village and endured poverty through his childhood. With no telephone, running water, or television, the young Herzog entertained himself on the page; he says he knew he was a poet by 13 or 14 and that he had to make films despite hardly having seen any until age 11.

Now 83 and credited on more than 70 films, Herzog has moved between landmark features such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo and idiosyncratic documentaries like Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World. His work repeatedly turns to eccentrics and the limits of human ambition, spotlighting people driven by exceptionally large dreams.

His latest film, Ghost Elephants, follows South African explorer Steve Boyes as he searches for a rumored elephant in the Angola highlands.

Angola, Munich

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