Encounters at the End of the World (2007)
Discovery Films

Description

Welcome to Antarctica - like youve never experienced it. You've seen the extraordinary marine life the retreating glaciers and of course the penguins but leave it to award winning iconoclastic filmmaker Werner Herzog to be the first to explore the south poles most fascinating inhabitants: Humans.

Tags

Oscar nomination, Environment, Antarctica

Collected reviews and ratings

10 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

The stunning images aren't enough for Herzog, though. He wants us to see how these quirky researchers, in their lust to explore, are acting out a drive as primitive as nature: the need to break away from the world in order to find it.
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10 DVD Talk | Kurt Dahlke

Gorgeous, thought provoking, and at-times hilarious, Encounters is a must-see for movie fans of all stripes. The director even staunchly refuses to make a 'fuzzy penguin feature,' which should please cynics in the audience.
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9.0 New York Times | Manohla Dargis

Few filmmakers make the end of days seem as hauntingly beautiful as Werner Herzog does, or as inexorable.
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9.0 DVD Verdict | James A. Stewart

If you've ever wondered why anyone would go to Antarctica, Encounters at the End of the World will provide some interesting answers, while showing just enough of the natural beauty of the ice continent to entice viewers. As an added bonus, just watching people coping with the chills of Antarctica made me feel a little warmer by comparison.
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9.0 Amazon user reviews

There are movies, there are directors, and then there are masterpieces and masterful directors. Encounters is a true masterpiece, especially taken within the body of Herzog's work.
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8.8 TV Guide | Ken Fox

Werner Herzog has gone from New German Cinema pioneer to one of the most entertaining - and accessible - documentary filmmakers.
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8.0 Los Angeles Times | Mark Olsen

The images captured by Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger are dazzling all on their own, finding the disorienting psychedelia that is nature at its weirdest.
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8.0 Washington Post | Desson Thomson

Known for his hypnotic films set in otherworldly cultures, Herzog takes to the frozen continent with his customary fusion of mystical mission and pithy skepticism.
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8.0 filmcritic.com | Paul Brenner

Encounters at the End of the World devotes much of its time to the crazy mirror touches of life at the bottom of the world. Herzog lingers on a cafeteria worker speaking with holy fervor about Frosty Boy ice cream.
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7.0 Variety | Scott Foundas

There are many moments in which Herzog transforms the strange and wondrous sights and sounds of Antarctica into the landscape of an alien planet, as he did with the burning oil fields of Kuwait in his celebrated "Lessons of Darkness."
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