Signs of Life

Werner Herzog's first feature, from 1968, is set on the Greek island of Kos during the Second World War. Stroszek, a wounded German soldier, and two comrades are assigned to guard an ammunition depot in a fortress far from the front. There is nothing to do; for days they catch cockroaches, play cards and wait in the island heat. The film's subject is not war but the way emptiness undoes a person. One day Stroszek sees a whole valley filled with windmills, and after that sight he loses his mind, shutting himself in the fortress, surrendering to no one and declaring war on the islanders with fireworks. The obsessive protagonist of Herzog's later films begins here. The black and white photography and the use of landscape point to mature work. Who it's for: viewers who like early Herzog and films about madness. Who it's not for: anyone expecting an eventful war film; this one is built on almost nothing happening.