Mad scientists and adventurers are favorite characters in Werner Herzog's films. This time, the director focuses on the search for giant ghost elephants, a distant relative of which is on display at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Dr. Steve Boyes tracks a herd hiding from humans in Angola, an uninhabited area the size of England that the natives call the end of the world. Herzog documents his protagonist's obsessions, dreams, and imagination, asking whether it wouldn't be better for these elephants to remain beyond human reach and function as the titular ghosts? Is the tribal leader, who authorizes the search, right in saying that the fate of elephants is directly linked to the fate of humans?
