Lessons of Darkness

Retreating from Kuwait after the first Gulf War, the Iraqi army sets fire to the country's oil fields. In this documentary, filmmaker Werner Herzog films the raging flames while narrating from the perspective of a confused alien visitor, musing on the strangeness of the landscape. As the fires burn, helicopter shots display the extent of the damage. On the ground, firefighters do their best to control things, while Kuwaiti women recount atrocities perpetrated by the Iraqis. …