Leaving August 1

Directed by Werner Herzog | 110 mins | 1997
The last film to emerge from the long, tumultuous five-movie collaboration/death struggle between Herzog and Klaus Kinski, "Cobra Verde" features Kinski as a disgraced, priapic plantation worker sent to almost certain death by his employer on a mission to round up slaves in West Africa where, against all odds, he thrives—setting himself up as a benevolent potentate after deposing a mad king. A fittingly frenzied climax to one of the wildest director-star pairings in cinema, with Kinski delivering a performance of rabid, feral, raving hysteria and depravity.