The White Diamond

Werner Herzog has certainly released documentaries more famous than The White Diamond (Grizzly Man comes to mind at once.) For my money, however, Herzogian Non-Fiction Cinema doesn’t get better than this masterful tale of a man obsessed with filming the most remote parts of the world by way of a hot air balloon. Yes, we’re back in Fitzcarraldo thematic territory with this film; the fact that Werner manged to find himself a real-life, non-fiction counterpart to his beloved Klaus Kinski is simply the cherry on top of a great story.

White Diamond is a true work of art that fits comfortably among Herzog’s finest fiction, and that’s saying a lot. There’s the main story, there’s an equally fascinating backstory, there’s a story-within-the-story, and then there’s this guy and his pet rooster. All are essential elements in telling this perfect- and relatively unknown- Herzog classic.