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I don't believe thereis a greater drama in the German language than Büchner's 'Woyzeck'; it's a work of such stunning actuality, like an undefused bomb. The first time I read it I felt as if a lightning bolt had shot through me.

Woyzeck will screen from an archival 35mm film print.

Herzog's adaptation of one of the most renowned of all German plays – Georg Büchner's 19th Century famously incomplete work 'Woyzeck'. The play was unfinished at the time of Büchner's death, with the surviving sections still unordered, leaving it to modern adapters to decide how best to sequence the text's events. The narrative revolves around Franz Woyzeck (Klaus Kinski), a hapless soldier in 19th Century Germany. To earn extra money for his mistress Marie (Eva Mattes) and their child, he carries out menial labour and subjects himself to medical experiments – which push his already fragile sanity to breaking point.

The film was shot quickly and with little fanfare in the aftermath of the shoot for Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre 1979, which lends the action a forceful immediacy. Kinski is typically captivating in the eponymous role, while Mattes similarly shines in the role of Marie, being awarded for her work at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. The film is a passionate adaptation of a classic text; Herzog manages to successfully blend Büchner's study of power and morality with his own unique cinematic sensibilities.