Into the Inferno

Werner Herzog and the volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer met in Antarctica and decided to go looking at volcanoes together. The result is less a geology documentary than a film about what people do beside fire. They travel to volcanoes in Indonesia, Iceland, Ethiopia and North Korea. Herzog's interest is not in the lava but in the belief around it. In a village in Vanuatu there is a cult waiting for an American serviceman who lives inside the volcano. In North Korea, Mount Paektu sits at the centre of state mythology, which is why Herzog was granted access at all, and the film does not pretend the footage there is anything but a controlled tour. It films the control itself. There is also a section on a fossil dig in Ethiopia, the most Herzogian passage in the film: scientists searching for a fragment of skull from a human who died millions of years ago. It premiered at Telluride on 3 September 2016 and went to Netflix on 28 October. Who it is for: viewers who want Herzog's narrating voice and the link between nature and belief. Who it is not for: anyone wanting an orderly documentary structure or scientific depth.