东非的飞行医生们 (1970)

Here Herzog sets out to document a small group of British physicians who provide medical supplies and aid to the vast undeveloped interior of tribal eastern Africa. Werner's fascination with these "flying doctors" seems genuine though comes across as exploitive and poorly realized. He focuses primarily on the indigenous tribes' primitive conditions and quirky cultural differences largely avoiding focusing on the actual doctors the film is named after. Their backgrounds - their motivations - their passion for helping these people through great adversity is hardly touched upon leaving behind a sheen but hollow "National Geographic" short. It certainly doesn't help that the film's English dialog is spoken over by German narration often without the benefits of English subtitles. And when subtitles are present, they are blocked and very poorly translated. Still, there are good scenes providing reflection on culture, adaptation to environment and the nature of health care.