MOVIE · 1999

Wings of Hope

ActionAdventureDocumentaryFamily65 min

Werner Herzog returns to the Peruvian jungle with Juliane Koepcke, the German-Peruvian woman who was the sole survivor of the 1971 crash of LANSA Flight 508. Back at the site, Koepcke revisits the wreckage and retraces the route she took out of the rainforest after the plane broke apart in midair during a lightning storm. Herzog also brings his own connection to the story: while scouting for Aguirre, the Wrath of God, he had narrowly avoided boarding that same flight after a last-minute itinerary change. The film stays close to Koepcke’s account as memory, place, and survival meet in the jungle.