A team of scientists and locals search for the elusive and massive titular Ghost Elephants in Werner Herzog’s captivating new documentary.
TW: Violence against animals; for the arachnophobic: a spider, covered in her young, is on screen for what seems like a VERY long time.
For many, hearing Werner Herzog, the continually working German master of cinema (it’s been 3 years since Theaters of Thought but I stand by that) has a new film out is enough to get a butt in a cinema, or likely in this case a couch to watch on National Geographic or Disney+ (the theatricial distribution is limited to special showings here and there). Whether it be his narrative features (his 1979 Nosferatu remains my favorite version of Dracula) or his wide-ranging documentaries (I’m a fan of Little Deiter Needs to Fly which he translated into a narrative feature and Cave of Forgotten Dreams), Herzog always presents something worthy of one’s time, crafting something special, strange, and not quite what one would expect. Different but wholly fulfilling. Ghost Elephants is just that, different, but endlessly fascinating; another wonderfully charged, engaging documentary from a master of the genre.
Werner Herzog has been a fascinating documentarian, finding subjects that match his own strange, obsessive lifestyle; different but not in a showy way. He crafts heartfelt, but often enigmatic and grounded views into odd corners. In Ghost Eelephants, the octogenarian trains his lens at a team looking for possibly mythical “Ghost Elephants” of Angola and Namibia. The elephants, known only from one felled by a White hunter in the 1950s and on display at the Smithsonian, are rumored to exist in larger populations, towering over the elephants more commonly seen elsewhere in Africa and India. The titular pachyderms are said to be mainly found within the Angolan Highlands Water Tower, a little-explored, sparsely populated area that supplies water to southern Africa. Herzog follows Steve Boyes, a South African scientist, a team from around the world, and a dozen or so bushman trackers (Xiu rocks, love that guy) as they plan and execute their trip.
Ghost Elephants, like so many of his other documentaries, has a methodical approach, of taking a subject directly without flourish, although much humor is found in Herzog’s unique phrasing in his trademark stoic but knowing voiceover. What this means is don’t expect awe-inspiring expanses of the plains or the water highlands. While there are a few quick diorama shots, this isn’t Planet Earth. Herzog lets the natural beauty speak for itself, as one who lives within would see and experience. The look of the neutral word is presented naturally. As majestic as these animals are, they aren’t Herzog’s focus. In fact, outside of the nasty footage of an elephant hunt from 1965’s Africa Addio, an Italian Mondo film, only a handful of living elephants are seen within the film. But that’s not the point. It’s not the elephants, but the people around them. Herzog’s documentaries are often less than the goal, but the unending need to pursue it. That voice inside, saying to keep going.
In many ways, it’s a film about obsession. While Boyes isn’t a wild man, off the rails about his subject like the doomed Timothy Treadwell of Grizzly Man, he’s a guy with a drive. It’s an easier, perhaps softer, view for Herzog, but just as interesting. There’s little evidence of these giant creatures, but Boyes KNOWS they are there. While there is always scientific knowledge to be found, it’s not a life-or-death journey. It’s nice not to have that hanging over, the land isn’t threatened, the elephants are not endangered, a cure for a crippling disease isn’t on the edge of getting the proof. We just want to know “yes, they exist.”
Living within these worlds, the “hunt” is the back half of the film, and I didn’t even mind just spending time on the anthropology of the San people. We get to know them. Herzog has the uncanny ability to get in deep with subjects, such as the child soldiers of Ballad of the Little Soldier or the deaf/blind community in the Land of Silence and Darkness. The people aren’t peculiarities, subjects to be viewed from afar, but for Herzog and his audience, they are fascinating as they live the life they have, by necessity or choice. 
Those looking for a more standard nature documentary with Herzogs voiceover instead of Attenbororh, and there may be plenty since it’s on Disney+ (National Georgraphic didn’t produce the film, but bought it), might be disappointed in the less of a “follow the graceful majesty of a herd of graceful elephant” and more of people following a graceful herd of elephants, often just out of reach”. Know that the film of of the people and the haunting beauty of the world and obsession than “look at the elephants living their lives.”
Interested in more? The March 2026 issue of National Geographic sequelizes the documentary and provides more background and detail than the filmed documentary can. Even without the addendum of material (which I coincidentally read the night I saw the movie), Ghost Elephants provides a wealth of material in the world around these creatures, specifically the people obsessed with finding them. It’s a gripping, but maybe saner than most Herzog documentaries, but no less affecting. Ghost Elephants is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+. My personal recommendation is to find a theatrical screening, as rare as the titular animals, but that’s always better.