Watch Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun For Free

Good concept, poorly executed.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Herzog's documentary of the Wodaabe people of the Sahara/Sahel region. Particular attention is given to the tribe's spectacular courtship rituals and 'beauty pageants', where eligible young men strive to outshine each other and attract mates by means of lavish makeup, posturing and facial movements.They are traditionally nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel, with migrations stretching from southern Niger, through northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameroon, southwestern Chad, and the western region of the Central African Republic. Today (2016) they are estimated to number around 100,000.I have to thank Herzog for this document. I am not sure if I had heard of the Wodaabe before, but they are a fascinating people, mixing African traditions with Islamic culture, and certainly a variety of their own practices. The makeup and other modifications almost make them look fake, like china dolls or some such thing. Why they consider themselves such beautiful people is easy to see.

«The sun has overcome every fence, and no arrow can reach it.» This is a saying, a deeply wise one, from the Wodaabe, a semi-nomad tribe dwelling the Sahara desert this documentary is on.Their way of life is covered and exposed with something that defining abundance of detail and care would still be not satisfactory, as passion is involved and, like always, passion is the sole explanation to itself. Members of the tribe are customarily made marry at an age of around 10; however, there is freedom of choice to the marital matter unknown to our self-defining «advanced» societies: partition from one's spouse is allowed for both genders, and wives frequently exercise it; furthermore, when the love feast comes every woman can pick a young man to couple with for the night.Beauty and making-up (some derived by liquid from exhausted torch batteries), as well as ritual feasts, play a cardinal role, the sole distractions from the fatigue of every day. {mettere dove? Rain, and terrain fertility, are vital for survival.} Such vainness among a population feeling few needs and leading a natural, unsophisticated life, seem to indicate vainness be a constitutive trait of the human kind.Herzog's approach to cultures distant from the West's ones is his methodical, lucid yet fresh interest, the outcome of it being a dynamic, effective report, that catches the spirit, and traces back the very root, of far and away civilizations. So, after a ceremony has been completed, the Wodaabe are inquired on their next destination. the answer is that they don't know yet: they are simply going to follow the route their cattle will take.{I skipped 2 or 3 minutes of the documentary, where an animal is slayed.}

Wodaabe: Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) *** (out of 4) Very interesting documentary that follows the Wodaabe tribe of the Sahara region as they discuss various parts of their lives including a four year drought they had just gone through. The majority of the film focuses on a seven day beauty pageant where the women get to pick men to spend the night with and perhaps marry. I'm not sure how Herzog picks his material when it comes time to do a documentary but he's got a magic touch at finding interesting subjects. This is a very interesting documentary that shows us some people that many probably never even heard of and I have to wonder how many of the people in the film had ever seen a video camera before the German director showed up to film them. The film moves at a very fast pace and there's not a single slow moment even though a lot of the film is pictures only and doesn't feature too much narration. The narration is done by Herzog himself and that incredible voice works well with the film. There are several very cute moments including the morning after a couple has stayed the night together and Herzog is trying to question them but they are blushing so much and can't think of anything to say. It's moments like that that make this documentary worth seeing.

Actually as a documentary of the Wodaabe, this television film leaves much to be desired. There is a brief discussion of the enlarging Sahara and the problem of lack of rain. However this is undercut by actually filming just after one of the rare periods when it did rain. There is also a brief segment on the shanty town next to the uranium mines. Then these are dropped. The major interest is the male beauty competition. The faces of the contestants are scanned as an introduction, and most of the second half of the film is about the competition. This aspect is certainly interesting, and the young men's makeup and clothing is in dramatic contrast to construction of masculinity in the dominant global culture. We think of such makeup and restrictive clothing as feminine. Their appearance is somewhat like drag in Europe/North America, but then yet again is quite different. When the selected young woman walks past the finalists, she does not look them in the face - she appears to be looking mainly at the ground. This aspect of Wodaabe femininity should be explained and contrasted to other male-female interactions.Do they use mirrors to apply their makeup. None are seen, but some of the young men are holding their hands as if they have a mirror, but this is not confirmed by the camera.Amazingly, there are no tourists at the festival. Only the German camera crew. We are not shown how the Wodaabe relate to being filmed by these foreigners.As this film was made for French television, and the opening titles and commentary and the closing credits are in French, should not the French title be the prime one?