Werner Herzog’s Award-Winning Documentary on the Death Penalty

The film first showed on September 3, 2011, at the Telluride Film Festival, and its official world premiere on September 8, 2011, at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. After strong festival showings and a surge of interest in the issue capital punishment in America, Herzog requested that the film be rushed to a general theatrical release, scheduled for November 11, 2011.

In his fascinating examination of a triple homicide case in Conroe, Texas, Werner Herzog probes the human psyche to explore why people kill and why a state kills. In intimate conversations with those involved, including 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry (who was scheduled to die eight days after his interview with Herzog), the filmmaker achieves what he describes as “a gaze into the abyss of the human soul.” Herzog’s inquiries also extend to the other convicted killer, Jason Burkett; his father, also incarcerated; a woman who lost both her mother and brother in the crime; as well as a chaplain and former executioner who’ve been with death row prisoners as they’ve taken their final breaths. As he’s so often done before, Herzog’s investigation unveils layers of humanity, making an enlightening trip out of ominous territory.

The film’s premiere was on September 2011 at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was often portrayed as being one among several “hot-button political documentaries” at the festival. Herzog, however, has stated that he has no political intentions with the film. Herzog states at the film’s outset that he opposes capital punishment, but he has said that his “focus is elsewhere” in the film. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he said, “This is not an issue film; it’s not an Activist film against capital punishment”, and “yes, it has an issue, but it’s not the main purpose of the film.  “Into the Abyss” was awarded the 2011 BFI London Film Festival, Best Documentary.

The daring documentary brings you to the front seat as an observer as it paints a devastating picture of cycles of violence and wasted lives on both side of the prison bars.