''Last Words'' (german: Letzte Worte) is a 1968
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
by
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...
shot in
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
and on the island of
Spinalonga
Spinalonga ( el, Σπιναλόγκα) is an island located in the Gulf of Elounda in north-eastern Crete, in Lasithi, next to the town of Plaka. The island is further assigned to the area of Kalydon.
It is near the Spinalonga peninsula ("larg ...
. The film was shot in two days during the filming of Herzog's feature ''
Signs of Life'', and edited in one day.
The film tells a story of the last man to leave the abandoned island of Spinalonga, which had been used as a
leper colony. The man refused to leave, and so was forcibly removed. He now lives in Crete, where he plays the
Cretan lyra
)
* Lira da braccio
* Rabāb (Arabic الرباب)
* Lijerica
* Violin
, musicians =
* Andreas Rodinos
* Alekos Karavitis
* Antonis Papadakis (Kareklas)
* Kostas Mountakis
* Nikos Xilouris
* Psarantonis
* Ross Daly
* Yiorgos K ...
at nights in a bar, and refuses to speak. The film's narrative style is very unconventional, with most characters speaking their lines several times repeatedly in long takes. The man from the island has the most spoken lines of any character, as he repeatedly explains that he refuses to speak, even a single word.
Cast (uncredited)
*
Antonis Papadakis : the last leper
* Lefteris Daskalakis : the
bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...
player
References
External links
*
1968 films
West German films
German short films
German avant-garde and experimental films
1960s German-language films
1960s German films
{{1960s-Germany-film-stub