Where the Green Ants Dream Reviews

German director Werner Herzog seems to have an affinity for the environments of the socially outcast or the physically deformed. In WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM he has traveled to Australia to be at home with the aborigines. Obsessed with the notion that these outcasts are pure souls in touch with a superior spirituality, Herzog (like Peter Weir in THE LAST WAVE, Nicolas Roeg in WALKABOUT, and Dusan Makavejev in THE COCA-COLA KID) has given all his energy to bringing these people and their stories to the screen. Set on the tribal lands of the Riratjingu, the story concerns a mining company that sends bulldozers and explosives to the land in preparation for opening a new uranium mine. The aboriginal people passively resist the encroachment, claiming that the area is the sacred place "where the green ants dream." Although one company employee, Lance Hackett (Bruce Spence), is sympathetic to the tribe's beliefs, his superiors bring the case before the Australian Supreme Court. While not Herzog's most original or compelling film, WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM is further proof of his enlightened vision. More than simply an environmental, anthropological, or entomological study, the movie realizes an environment created in Herzog's mind--in reality, there is no battle between miners and the aborigines, nor is there a place where the green ants dream, nor are the "facts" about such ants based in reality. The picture is not a real study of the contemporary situation in Australia but rather a symbolic expose of the troubles that exist between imperialists and the lands they invade. The film is in English, the production team is German, the cast is made up of locals, and the photography was done in Melbourne and Coober Pedy.