Fata Morgana (1971)

In this documentary by acclaimed director Werner Herzog, the Sahara Desert is the backdrop for this meditative, mostly silent film. The powerful images are accompanied by a reading the Mayan creation myth Popul Vuh and music from Leonard Cohen. Herzog, who also made the films Aguirre, The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, captures mirages on the desert landscape, which is at times polluted with the machinery modern nations have left behind.