This film essay by Steff Gruber is a report on the exceedingly difficult work of making Werner Herzog’s film COBRA VERDE in Ghana. The very personal film however is more than just a blow by blow account of the film’s creation.
It also focuses on the complicated relationship between the two stars Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the walk-on players (Herzog had a thousand young Ghanaian women trained as Amazon warriors) and the clash of black and white.
As Klaus Kinski died soon after the completion of filming work, LOCATION AFRICA was the last documentary film in which he appeared.
CH 1987
Documentary
16 mm (3:4)
62 min., colour
Location: Ghana, Africa
Language: English, Swiss German
Subtitles: English, German
Director: Steff Gruber
Script: Steff Gruber
Photography: Siegfried Meier
Editing: Benjamin Müller, Steff Gruber
Music: Black Generation
With
Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Thomas Mauch, Peter Berling, King Ampaw a.o.
Producer: Steff Gruber
Production: ALIVE Media AG, Werner Herzog Film GmbH Wien
Co-Production: German Television, ARD
Distribution: Filmcoopi Zurich
World Sales: KINO.NET AG
All photos by Beat Presser
A film by Steff Gruber
Shot on location in Ghana, West Africa
With
WERNER HERZOG
KLAUS KINSKI
STEFF GRUBER
PETER BERLING
THOMAS MAUCH
BEAT PRESSER
BERTHOLD SACK
KING AMPAW
The Amazones
JOSEPHINE HUDSON-ODOI
ANNIE WILSON
GLORIA APPAN
JEMIMAH HANSEN-ANSAH
RUBY APPOE
BETTY ENNINFUL
MERCY ENNINFUL
FRANCES ENNINFUL
JULIET ENNINFUL
JEMIMAH ALEXA LAMPTEY
EMMA ROMY ADDO
ERNASTINA DADZIE
GLADYS AHILIJAH
ROSALIND ARTHUR
VIDA OPPONG
ROSEMOND OGUAGNE
EETHEL ASARE
EDITH ASARE
MARGARET ANTWI
BARBARA OTENG-MANKA
PHILOMENA BUCKNER
and others
Director of Photography
SIEGFRIED MEIER
Edited by
BENI MÜLLER
Music by
KOJO DADSON
BLACK GENERATION
Production Assistant
CHARLES QUAYE
Production Driver
JAMES Y. OSEI
Production Assistant (CH)
VIVIAN SCHEIFELE
Sound mixed at Sondor by
EUGEN SURBECK
Additional sound recorded at
FONOCOP
Negativ edited by
ISABELLE BERGAMIN
THERES VOGEL
Color Timing by
JOHANNES ANDERS
Laboratory
CINEGRAM, Zurich
Additional lab-work
ARRI, Munich
Typesetting
HEADLINE, Zollikon/ZH
Titles
TRICKFILMLADEN, Zurich
Transcript
VIVIAN SCHEIFELE
DORIS ECKSTEIN
Production Secretary
DANIELA LENGGENHAGER
Computerized video editing
MAINFRAME Inc. / Araco Inc.
Special thanks to the entire COBRA VERDE crew! And to:
Rainer Klausmann
Walter Saxer
Beat Presser
Tom Ribeiro, Ghana Films
Industries Corporation
Pan African Hotel, Accra
Legon University, Accra
Swissair, Accra
Buchdruckerei Müller & Werder, Zurich
Max Laube
Uli Meier
Elisabeth Gujer
Felix Hächler
René Grossenbacher
Daniel Koch
Martine Grosjean
The Black Generation Soundtrack by
courtesy of CitiRock, Accra, Ghana
’Africa Rise’
composed arranged & produced by
Kojo Dadson 1987
’Solidarity’
composed arranged & produced by
Kojo Dadson 1987
’Hey, hey, Africa’
composed arranged & produced by
Kojo Dadson 1987
Produced by Steff Gruber for Alive Films Ltd, Zurich Switzerland and
Lucki Stipetic for Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, Munich, West Germany
ARD TV Commissioning Editor
MANFRED NAEGELE, Südfunk Stuttgart
World Sales
CINE INTERNATIONAL, Munich
Copyright by Steff Gruber and Werner Herzog, Switzerland/BRD 1987
CH 1987
Documentary
16 mm (3:4)
62 min., colour
Language: English, Swiss German
Subtitles: English, German
Photos: Beat Presser
«Location Africa» ist ohne jeden Zweifel der dokumentarischste von Grubers Filmen. So ist denn das Interesse, das sich für den Zuschauer mit dieser Arbeit verbindet, vor allem in der Darstellung der Figur Herzogs und den Problemen, die sich für ein weisses Filmteam in Schwarzafrika ergeben, zu suchen.
Die Gespräche mit einigen der Statistinnen zeigen, welch grosse Unterschiede zwischen den beiden hier miteinander konfrontierten Kulturen bestehen.
Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
5. Dezember 1987
Süddeutsche Zeitung
3. Dezember 1987
(PDF – 208.3 kb)
NZZ
5. Dezember 1987
(PDF – 375.2 kb)
Sonntagszeitung
6. Dezember 1987
(PDF – 468.1 kb)
Luzerner Tagblatt
6. Januar 1988
(PDF – 308.8 kb)
