Werner Herzog Narrates the Touching, Existential Journey of a Plastic Bag

It just goes to show that, put in the right hands, you can root, or shed a tear, for any pro­tag­o­nist — even if it’s a plas­tic bag. Shot in 2009 by Ramin Bahrani (who Roger Ebert called the “new great Amer­i­can direc­tor”) this 18-minute film “traces the epic, exis­ten­tial jour­ney of a plas­tic bag search­ing for its lost mak­er, the woman who took it home from the store and even­tu­al­ly dis­card­ed it.” Adding a spe­cial touch, Wern­er Her­zog nar­rates the inner thoughts of the bag as it “encoun­ters strange crea­tures, expe­ri­ences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved mak­er, and tries to grasp its pur­pose in the world.”

Plas­tic Bag was one of 11 films released in the Inter­net Tele­vi­sion Ser­vice’s “Futurestates” film series explor­ing “what life might look like in an Amer­i­ca of the future.” Upon its release, Her­zog told The Guardian, ‘I’m so glad this is not an agen­da movie or I would run like mad and get away from here. I mean, we can talk about sus­tain­abil­i­ty issues, about plas­tic, about the Earth, but the movie’s about some­thing else, some­thing more … it’s about a jour­ney.” An emo­tion­al, exis­ten­tial one, indeed.

You can find Plas­tic Bag in our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Wern­er Her­zog Offers 24 Pieces of Film­mak­ing & Life Advice

Wern­er Her­zog Picks His 5 Top Films

Wern­er Her­zog and Cor­mac McCarthy Talk Sci­ence and Cul­ture