I slutningen af 1800-tallet får operafantasten Fitzcarraldo en vision om, at han skal bygge et operahus dybt inde i Amazonas regnskov. Alle undtagen hans tro følgesvend, bordelmutteren Molly, anser ham for at være gal. Men Fitzcarraldo begiver sig sejrssikkert ind i junglen ombord på et gammelt rustent dampskib. Han støder dog på noget af en forhindring, da et bjerg ligger mellem ham og hans drøm. For at nå sit mål bestemmer han sig for at slæbe hele båden over bjerget.

Werner Herzogs film om Kasper Hauser er baseret på en sand historie. Året er 1828, en ung mand kommer vaklende ind af den tyske by Nürnbergs byport i tøj der er alt for stor til ham. Hvor kommer han fra, hvem er han? Ingen i Nürnberg har set ham før. Han kunne ikke svare sammenhængende da de spurgte efter hans navn, hans gang var mærkelig foroverbøjet. Det lille samfund tager ham til sig, og langsomt får de lært ham at tale. Kasper Hauser fortæller en grusom historie, om at han har været indespæret i en kælder hele hans liv, han havde aldrig før set et andet menneske, et træ eller et hus... Kasper Hauser bliver med tiden en jaget mand... Nogen vil ikke have at han lever...

Panserkrydseren Potemkin skildrer mytteriet i Sortehavsflåden i 1905 og den efterfølgende folkelige opstand mod zarstyret. Filmen var oprindeligt et bestillingsarbejde - et stykke sovjetisk propaganda, der skulle markere revolutionens spæde begyndelse og endelige sejr tyve år senere. Da matroserne på panserkrydseren Potemkin får leveret råddent, maddikebefængt kød til deres suppe, begynder oprøret mod de tyranniske officerer, og det lykkes matroserne at få kontrol over skibet. Matrosen Vakulinchuk, som har stået i spidsen for mytteriet, bliver skudt af en officer under oprøret, og skibets besætning tager hans lig med ind til havnebyen Odessa, hvor han bliver lagt lit de parade. Rygterne om mytteriet spredes hurtigt. Folk strømmer til for at vise sympati med oprørerne og samles på Odessatrappen.

In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.

I løbet af 13 somre rejste grizzlybjørnseksperten Timothy Treadwell til Alaska for at studere og leve med bjørne. Ekspeditionerne fik en brat afslutning i 2003, da Timothy og hans kæreste blev dræbt af en bjørn. Werner Herzog gennemgik over hundrede timer af Timothys egne optagelser for at lave denne dokumentarfilm.

Two men, part tramp, part pilgrim, are on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. On their way they meet a whole assortment of people—some truculent, some violent, and some bizarre; they experience many adventures—some mysterious, some erotic, some even supernatural.

Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, sits down with filmmaker Werner Herzog to discuss his many achievements. Topics include the talks to reduce nuclear weapons, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of his country.

A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.

Three decades after German-American pilot Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, he returns to the places where he was held prisoner during the early years of the Vietnam War. Accompanied by director Werner Herzog, Dengler describes in unusually candid detail his captivity, the friendships he made, and his daring escape. Not willing to stop there, Herzog even persuades his subject to re-enact certain tortures, with the help of some willing local villagers.

The story of an imaginative boy who pretends he is the child of a sperm-laden Sicilian tomato upon which his mother accidentally fell.

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

A factory worker in a dark, gray world assembles devices that promise happiness. In his spare time he tinkers to create something better, and finally succeeds in perfecting his invention, which allows people to see life through rose-colored glasses, but he has to pay a price for his success.

Hard times come for the Carraclough family and they are forced to sell their dog, Lassie, to the rich Duke of Rudling. Lassie, however, is unwilling to remain apart from young Carraclough son Joe and sets out on a long and dangerous journey to rejoin him.

In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.

Katharina Blum foreslsker sig i en ung mand, der viser sig at være deserteret fra hæren. Det bliver starten på et mareridt for den unge kvinde. Katharina anholdes af politiet og får tabloidpressen på nakken. Journalisten Tötges stempler hende som terrorist og bringer dagligt nye løgnehistorier, der sværter hende til på det groveste. Katharinas reaktion på forfølgelsen får dødelige konsekvenser.

Frustrated with their lazy new intern, a trio of offbeat builders decide to teach him a lesson with a series of escalating pranks.

Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated.

Two freethinking teenagers - a boy and a girl - confront with authoritarian teachers in their boarding schools. The other students treat this differently.

Maria seeks revenge on the killers of her husband. She enlists the help of her husband's best friend, Manual, a reluctant, but skilled, gunfighter.

Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.