Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) is a Werner Herzog documentary you can watch online on iFILM. The Chauvet Cave in southern France has been sealed from the public since its discovery — the roughly 32,000-year-old paintings inside are the oldest known figurative art on earth, and even a breath of warm air could damage them. Herzog received exceptional access: a few hours a day, a narrow metal walkway, a four-person crew.

What his cameras found on those walls is staggering. Horses and bison painted in motion, rhinoceroses with overlapping horns to suggest movement, a bear skull placed on a flat rock as if left there deliberately. The Aurignacian artists who worked here understood shadow and depth. Researchers Jean Clottes and Jean-Michel Geneste walk through the cave on camera and piece together what they can about the people behind the art.

Herzog shot in 3D — a choice that feels less gimmicky than you'd expect, given that the rock face curves in ways a flat image can't capture. The question the film quietly sits with: what exactly separates those painters from us? Stream Cave of Forgotten Dreams online on iFILM.