Werner Herzog has responded forcefully to suggestions that his often single-minded protagonists can be read as representatives of contemporary movements calling for greater acceptance of atypical minds. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, the Bavarian director — whose career spans documentaries and fiction — also discussed his new feature, Kate Mara and Rooney Mara‘s collaboration in the film Bucking Fastard, and his own unexpected profile on social platforms.
The director is widely known for creating characters consumed by obsessions: explorers and loners who pursue ruinous dreams in films such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, or in his documentary account of Timothy Treadwell. Those figures have long been framed as emblematic of Herzog’s interest in extremes of human will. That established reputation has produced debates among critics about how to interpret atypical behaviour on screen and whether contemporary frameworks should be applied to older works.
At Venice Herzog addressed one element of that debate in plain terms. “I don’t like the term neurodivergence and ADHD, or whatever – it sounds like political correctness, which scares me under the table,” he said, rejecting the label as a way to describe either his characters or their creators. His words directly challenged attempts to cast his cinematic outsiders as role models for the neurodiversity movement, a line of interpretation that Herzog said he found uncomfortable.
Herzog’s remarks came alongside promotion of his latest project and a visible presence on Instagram, where his images and short statements have drawn attention beyond traditional festival audiences. Whether viewers approach his films as historical documents of obsession, as psychological case studies, or simply as singular works of art, Herzog’s intervention is likely to refocus discussion on terminology and the limits of categorising creative work. For now, the debate underscores how language and cultural frameworks shift the reception of long-standing cinematic personalities.
