Lessons of Darkness is a 1992 film by German director Werner Herzog. Herzog perceives the desert as a landscape with its own voice. Virtually devoid of commentary, the imagery concentrates on the aftermath of the first Gulf War - specifically on the Kuwaiti oil fires.

Herzog uses truck-mounted shots as in Fata Morgana, static shots of the workers near the oil fires, and many helicopter shots of the bleak landscape. Herzog's sparse narration interprets the imagery out of its documentary context, and into a poetic fiction: the workers are described as "creatures" whose behavior is motivated by madness and a desire to perpetuate the damage that they are witnessing. A crucial "plot point" involves the workers, shortly after succeeding in stopping the fires, re-igniting the flow of oil. The narration asks, "Has life without fire become unbearable for them?" The film begins with a quotation, attributed to Blaise Pascal: "The collapse of the stellar universe will occur-- like creation-- in grandiose splendor." The text in fact was written by Herzog for the film, and attributed to Pascal to give the film's opening a certain mood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons_of_Darkness