produced by: Ariel Leon Isacovitch
directed by: Werner Herzog
rated: not rated
runtime: 98 min.
U.S. release date: February 27, 2026 (theaters) and March 7, 2026 (Disney+/Hulu)

Last August at the Venice International Film Festival, veteran German filmmaker Werner Herzog received the festival’s highest prize, the Golden Lion, which is awarded to directors, actors, and other personalities from the world of cinema who have distinguished themselves in the art. Herzog is indeed a director, making some of the industry’s most notable narrative features and documentaries, but he’s also an actor, writer, producer, and much more. It’s a well-deserved award, but the 82-year-old artist was also attending the festival to promote his latest documentary, “Ghost Elephants”, which follows Steve Boyes, a South African conservationist and National Geographic Explorer who has dedicated his career to studying and protecting Africa’s river ecosystems and wilderness areas.

What you can often expect in Herzog’s lengthy filmmaking career are two things: his inimitable narration and his focus on a protagonist who is obsessed with something. Both of those are present in “Ghost Elephant”, which finds the director traveling to the western Atlantic coast of Southern Africa, following Boyes as he pursues a supposed undiscovered species of African elephant on the highland plateau of Angola, nicknamed “The Source of Life”.

When we first meet Boyes, he is in front of Herzog’s camera at the Smithsonian National History Museum in Washington, DC. Behind Boyes is “Henry,” a taxidermied corpse of the largest bull elephant to be exhibited in any museum. Technically, Henry is called “The Fénykövi Elephant” after his killer, Hungarian-born engineer and game hunter Josef Fénykövi. He tracked and shot the bull elephant in Angola in 1955, which, at the time of its 1959 unveiling, was the largest land mammal on display in a museum. It’s an emotional moment for the passionate Boyes, who has carried a photo of the legendary elephant around for a decade, and is only now seeing him for the first time. His dream is to find the living descendants of Henry, a rumored pachyderm and possible subspecies that’s larger than the average elephant.

What separates Boyes from some of Herzog’s previous obsessed documentary protagonists? Unlike Timothy Treadwell, the bear enthusiast that Herzog followed in his classic documentary “Grizzly Man” (2003), Boyes isn’t obsessed. He’s driven, and there’s a difference. Boyes has not cut himself off from civilization, but rather welcomes anyone who is willing to support his passion (hence the partnership with NatGeo). So, what can a collaboration between Boyes and Herzog, whose longstanding curiosity for the world remains intact, be like?

As Herzog and his cinematographer, Rafael Leyva, embark on this expedition, Boyes serves as their knowledgeable host and as our gateway to the mysterious titular creatures. Herzog remains an observer as Boyes engages with those who claim to have encountered the luminous beasts, after finding unique footprints and distinctive dung piles. By spending time with the indigenous locals, Herzog is able to contextualize Henry’s time in Namibia. This is where Boyes has found a team of master trackers among the Ju/Hoansi San Bushmen in the Kalahari, one of the oldest cultures on Earth, whose language includes clicking sounds. Three of the KhoiSan trackers are veterans, Xui can “read tracks like a newspaper”, and there’s also Xui Dawid and Kobus, one of whom is an aspiring soccer player-turned-anthropologist who shares the story of how Henry was shot and then tracked for almost 10 miles.

At one point, Herzog asks Boyes, “This quest, is it almost going after the white whale, the unknown, the mysterious?” and the answer in no uncertain terms is obvious.

What becomes so curious and striking is how the trackers physically mimic the elephants as if to commune with the majestic mammals and align themselves with their mythology. They seemingly give their body and soul to the animals they have rarely seen, as if with overwhelming faith. They’re captured on film scratching their backs against a tree, or lumbering from side-to-side with one arm hanging down like a trunk, as if to emulate their idols. Their actions and activities can seem curiously humorous at first, but then they become admirable, primarily because of their wholehearted commitment.

As expected, “Ghost Elephants” also has to show the cruelty of man, since they are the main reason these creatures (and many others) are so hard to find. Herzog includes a clip from the 1966 documentary, “Africa Addio”, which details the violence of animal poaching and even the wholesale massacre of thousands of people, as mercenary killers wipe out entire villages.  The clip Herzog uses shows a family of elephants being gunned down from a helicopter. It’s unfathomable how someone can justify killing such beautiful creatures, but we’ve seen the photos of men proudly taking a knee behind the lifeless husk of their prey. It’s one of many of man’s achievements that essentially reveals a weak and pathetic act.

Boyes puts it like this, “Man is on a mission to destroy what he’s part of, which is biodiversity.” It’s hard not to remember one of Herzog’s most iconic and indelible lines, “I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder.”

While big-game hunting is out of fashion, it is alarming when we witness the trackers working a deadly poison into a dart, coming so soon after seeing these harrowing images. The documentary provides personal context when Xui tells a story of his own brush with the poison. Herzog is more concerned with leaning into these personal asides than with making Boyes the documentary’s subject. It’s a smart decision, as it provides viewers with a more well-rounded view of everyone (and everything) who has been impacted by these elephants.

Anyone who’s seen a Herzog nature documentary knows to expect a certain whimsy and wistful adoration for his subject matter. Some may watch “Ghost Elephants” and find it to be more of the same from the filmmaker. I disagree, but even if that were true, I see nothing wrong with a man of his age, with all that he’s previously done, still doing what interests him. If he continues to offer unusual stories in a unique manner, like the ethereal scenes of an elephant underwater, I hope he keeps creating as long as he can.

RATING: ***