from vk & associates

“My intellectual, my spiritual awakening was in a way connected to Paleolithic cave painting. At age twelve, I spotted a book in the display window of a bookstore with a picture of a horse from the Lascaux cave on it, and an indescribable excitement took hold of me.”

-Werner Herzog , director, Cave of Forgotten Dreams

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Filming in 3D, Herzog captures the wonder and beauty of one of the most awe-inspiring sites on earth in Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

In Cave of Forgotten Dreams director Werner Herzog gains unprecedented access to prehistoric cave paintings inside France’s Chauvet Cave, bringing to audiences the sublime works in their three dimensional splendor, a sight previously seen only by a handful of select scientists.

For over 20,000 years, Chauvet Cave has been completely sealed off by a fallen rock face, its crystal-encrusted interior as large as a football field and strewn with the petrified remains of giant ice age mammals. In 1994, scientists discovered the caverns, and found hundreds of pristine paintings within, spectacular artwork dating back over 30,000 years (almost twice as old as any previous finds) to a time when Neanderthals still roamed the earth and cave bears, mammoths, and ice age lions were the dominant populations of Europe. Since then, only a few people have been allowed access into Chauvet Cave, and the true scope of its contents had largely gone unfelt—until Werner Herzog managed to gain access. Filming in 3D, Herzog captures the wonder and beauty of one of the most awe-inspiring sites on earth, all the while musing in his inimitable fashion about its original inhabitants, the birth of art, and the curious people surrounding the caves today.

Herzog combines his gifts as a conjurer of unforgettable images, explorer of forbidden landscapes and poetic philosopher to illuminate and celebrate the earliest recorded visions of humanity.

In order to preserve the cave paintings, only a small scientific team headed up by archaeologist Jean-Michel Geneste may, for a couple of weeks in spring and autumn, occupy a tiny base camp to access the cave. High levels of carbon dioxide and radon make it impossible to work inside for more than a few hours a day. Herzog is the first filmmaker to succeed in obtaining permission to create a film inside this wonder.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams not only captures the greatest leap forward in the chronicle of art, it delivers that art in the very arena it was meant to be experienced. And in a unique science fiction postscript, Herzog conjures up images from a fanciful and bizarre future.

About Director Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog (real name Werner H. Stipetic) was born in Munich and grew up removed from technology in a remote Bavarian village. He worked as a welder to fund production of his first film at age nineteen and has since directed more than fifty features. He has also published more than a dozen books or prose and directed as many operas. His films have won numerous awards, including the special grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (74) and best director at the Cannes Film Festival for Fitzcarraldo (82). His other films include: Aguirre, The Wrath of God (72), Nosferatu (78), Little Dieter Needs to Fly (97), Grizzly Man (05), Rescue Dawn (06), Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (09) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (10).

Cave of Forgotten Dreams is being released in Canada by KINOSMITH INC.