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Werner Herzog’s ‘Ghost Elephants’ Opens Nationwide, Charting a High-Stakes Search in Southern Africa

Herzog centers Steve Boyes’s pursuit linked to a 1955 Smithsonian giant to explore obsession over resolution.

Overview

  • Herzog’s documentary follows South African naturalist Steve Boyes into Namibia and Angola to investigate reports of unusually large, elusive elephants.
  • The film is now in theaters nationwide, with Forbes reporting concurrent availability on Disney+ and Hulu.
  • Boyes’s plan involves darting any candidates to collect tissue for DNA testing to compare with a massive 1955 Smithsonian specimen known as “Henry.”
  • Herzog says he began as an advisor on the project before being urged to take over as director during production.
  • Critics highlight striking imagery and conservation context, including underwater elephant footage, African night-sky time-lapse, and archival scenes of helicopter hunts and land-mine dangers.