LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS
“Land of Silence and Darkness” is about Fini Straubinger and her commitment to help the deaf and blind. Herzog tours her efforts to help the similarly afflicted, while continuing to examine the woman. Herzog has proclaimed in various outlets that this is one of his favorite films. The director shows the severely disabled in a loving way, but then his quirks start emerging. Such as showing Fini taking her first airplane flight and then visiting a zoo where she gets to pet monkeys. The push to use simians as touch therapy is quite interesting.
The film comes with no special features. But, you get a DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio track. It’s period appropriate, especially since it gets bundled on the same disc as Fata Morgana. It makes for an interesting double feature which shows how Herzog started outside of straight narrative pictures. I do have to admit that some of the shots of clinically handled disabled kids was quite depressing.