“The largest elephant ever. Does it matter if they are a dream or reality?”
So opens the first trailer for Ghost Elephants, the latest film from Werner Herzog, a director who has long muddied the waters between fact and fiction. For his latest documentary the German filmmaker behind Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams follows conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer Steve Boyes on his obsessive quest to find the mythical ghost elephants of Lisima in the highlands of Angola.
After premiering at the Venice Film Festival last year, Ghost Elephants will be released by National Geographic Films and Abramorama in select theaters on Feb. 27, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The film will subsequently air on National Geographic on March 7 and will be available to stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
The trailer shows Herzog joining a crew consisting of Boyes, fellow National Geographic Explorer Kerllen Costa and three veteran KhoiSan trackers, named Xui, Xui Dawid and Kobus, as they seek to finally uncover evidence that the legendary elephants are real. “This quest, is it almost going after the white whale, the unknown, the mysterious?” Herzog asks in the spot.
One night before the film’s release in theaters, Abramorama will host a nationwide theatrical simulcast feature a Q&A with Herzog and Boyes.
The film was written, directed and narrated by Herzog and produced by Ariel León Isacovitch and Herzog. THR’s review of the film called it “a poetic exploration of human obsession and mysterious nature.”
Watch the first trailer below.
