Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2020) Plot Summary

The film is divided into eight chapters, in which Herzog travels to Patagonia, the Black Mountains in Wales, and the Outback of Australia, where he meets Chatwin’s friends and others who shed light on his life and art.

1. The Skin of the Brontosaurus - Herzog visits Punta Arenas, the Cueva del Milodón Natural Monument, and Last Hope Sound in Patagonia. He meets Karin Eberhard, the great-granddaughter of 19th-century explorer Hermann Eberhard, who discovered the Giant Sloth that plays a significant role in Chatwin’s first book In Patagonia, and the Kenyan paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey.

2. Landscapes of the Soul - Visits Avebury and Silbury Hill in Wiltshire near to Chatwin’s school of Marlborough College. Talks to Chatwin’s widow Elizabeth at Llanthony Priory. Mentions his 1968 film Signs of Life. Meets Australian anthropologist Petronella Vaarzon-Morel and visits Coober Pedy in South Australia. Mentions that both men shared a fascination with the Aboriginal people of Australia, and first met while Herzog was filming Where the Green Ants Dream and Chatwin was researching The Songlines.

3. Songs and Songlines - Travels to Central Australia where he meets a number of Australians, including Aboriginal elders. He discusses the anthropologist Ted Strehlow and his book The Songs of Central Australia with Shaun Angeles Penange of the Strehlow Research Centre, before visiting Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory.

4. The Nomadic Alternative - Discusses Chatwin’s unfinished book The Nomadic Alternative with his biographer Nicholas Shakespeare. Discusses the hunter-gatherers of Patagonia, showing vintage photographs of the Selkʼnam people and the rock art at the Cueva de las Manos in Rio Pinturas. He discusses his own documentary Herdsmen of the Sun.

5. Journey to the End of the World - Herzog crosses the Beagle Channel and finds an archaeological dig on Navarino Island, then visits Puerto Williams. He talks with Elizabeth Chatwin and Nicholas Shakespeare about Bruce Chatwin as a storyteller and mimic. Reads from Chatwin’s essay Werner Herzog in Ghana.

6. Chatwin’s Rucksack - Herzog talks about Chatwin’s rucksack and how it came to play a role in his life in his film Scream of Stone, which he calls a ‘homage to Bruce Chatwin’. He mentions how the author liked Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo and his book Of Walking in Ice.

7. Cobra Verde - He talks about Chatwin’s visit to the set of Cobra Verde (which was based on his book The Viceroy of Ouidah).

8. The Book Is Closed - Herzog talks about Chatwin’s sexuality, marriage, conversion, and mortality.