MOVIE · 1997
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
DocumentaryDramaWar80 min
Three decades after being shot down over Laos in the early years of the Vietnam War, German-American pilot Dieter Dengler returns to the places where he was held prisoner and retraces what happened there. Werner Herzog accompanies him as Dengler recounts his captivity, the friendships he formed with other prisoners, and the escape that followed. Herzog also pushes beyond a standard interview, having Dengler revisit jungle routes and prison spaces and re-enact some of his treatment with local villagers standing in for guards. The film stays close to Dengler's own telling, letting memory, physical return, and survival sit side by side.
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