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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Land of Silence and Darkness

1971 Documentary film directed by Werner Herzog

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ2870474 ↗
Source-derived summary

Land of Silence and Darkness (German: Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit) is a 1971 documentary film about deaf-blind people and their experience of life. The film was written, directed, and produced by Werner Herzog. Rolf Illig provided narration.

Plot

Herzog follows Fini Straubinger, a German woman who became deaf-blind early in life, as she visits with other deaf-blind people, and discusses their struggles living in the modern world. In one scene from the film, the filmmakers visit a home for boys who were born deaf-blind, in another, Fini Straubinger and her friends ride in an aeroplane. In the final scene, a man examines a tree with his hands, and embraces it.

See also

1971 in film

Deafblindness

Tactile signing

List of films featuring the deaf and hard of hearing

References

Bibliography

Walsh, Gene (1979). Images at the Horizon: A Workshop with Werner Herzog, Conducted by Roger Ebert. Chicago. p.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Land of Silence and Darkness” is 1971 Documentary film directed by Werner Herzog. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Land, Silence and Darkness, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1971, 1979—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1971-01-01, 1972-06-12, 1981-12-20—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Land, Silence and Darkness is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1971 Documentary film directed by Werner Herzog” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2870474. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1971 and 1979.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Land of Silence and Darkness”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Land of Silence and Darkness primary sources, Land of Silence and Darkness archive and Land research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Land of Silence and Darkness”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Land of Silence and Darkness” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.