Land of Silence and Darkness

Fini Straubinger lost both her sight and her hearing early in life. The documentary follows her as she visits others in the same condition. The conversations happen hand to hand, spelled into the palm. She tells them about the outside world; some have had no contact with anyone for years. There is a visit to an institution for deaf-blind boys, and in one passage the group takes an aeroplane ride together. Werner Herzog wrote, directed and produced. Rolf Illig narrates, Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein photographed it and Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus edited. It runs 85 minutes, in German and German Sign Language. Its most remembered moment is at the end: a man examines a tree with his hands and embraces it. Who it is for: viewers who like Herzog as a documentarian and want to think about the limits of communication. Who it is not for: anyone expecting plain information. This is not a report on a condition but a record of time spent inside a closed world.