“We humans are terrible animals,” photographer Sebastião Salgado says in this alternately nightmarish and magical documentary about his life’s work. He’s in good hands, to say the least, with veteran director Wim Wenders, who teams up with Salgado’s director son Juliano to weave together a series of sketches from the senior Salgado’s more than 40 years traveling the world and chronicling the human condition; you will likely recognize one or more of his iconic, award-winning photos.
From widespread devastation in the Ethiopian famine to firemen working in the fiery oil fields of Kuwait to the savagery of the Rwandan genocide, Salgado’s camera has been witness to some of our species’ lowest, most horrific moments. Many of the images — and Salgado’s accounts of taking them — are as soul-shattering as they are breathtaking.
But Wenders and the younger Salgado find a narrative balance against the devastation — as did the now-71-year-old photographer, who segued into a focus on nature, as well as working with his wife to regrow the Brazilian rain forest of his youth.