National Geographic Documentary Films has picked up Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants documentary. The acquisition comes following the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere and prior to its screening at the Telluride Film Festival. The film is expected to have a theatrical release along with a streaming premiere on Disney+ and Hulu in 2026.
Herzog wrote, directed, and narrated the documentary, which charts National Geographic Explorer Steve Boyes’ quest to prove the existence of the massive land animals.
“After meeting Steve Boyes, an unexpected project that felt like the hunt for Moby Dick, the white whale, came at me with great urgency,” said Herzog. “Like many of my films, this is an exploration of dreams, of imagination—weighed against reality. The film took me to what the local tribesmen call ‘The Land at the End of the Earth.'”
The feature-length documentary is produced by Ariel León Isacovitch, with Sobey Road Entertainment as the producing partner. Brian Nugent, Andrew Trapani, Emerson Farrell, David Sze, David B. Kirk, Terrence Battle, and Casey Graf serve as executive producers. Additional executive producers include Carolyn Bernstein and Tim Horsburgh.
“As we pondered the fate of the ghost elephants, one thing became clear: They may hold the key to protecting the waters that give life to the Okavango,” stated Boyes. “For thousands of years, elephants have been the architects of landscapes and the nurturers of ecosystems that allow other species to thrive. And after bearing witness to war, their resilience carries from one generation to the next. To find them is to believe in a future where this Lisima landscape fully thrives for people and nature.”
“We are thrilled to bring Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants to streaming audiences worldwide,” commented Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president of Documentary Films at National Geographic. “This film’s captivating visual poetry gives viewers a front-row seat to Boyes’ quest to uncover the truth behind the legend of these magnificent and elusive creatures.”
National Geographic offered this description of Oscar nominee Werner Herzog’s new documentary:
“In the mist-covered highlands of Angola, deep within Africa’s last great subtropical forest, a mystery endures: the elusive ghost elephants of Lisima, the potential living descendants of the largest land mammal ever recorded. Steve Boyes, conservation biologist and National Geographic’s Okavango Wilderness Project leader, is determined to prove their existence.
In order to find these elusive elephants, Boyes and fellow National Geographic Explorer Kerllen Costa have teamed up with three KhoiSan master trackers—Qui (/ui), Qui-Dawid, and Kobus. Refugees from a war-torn past and considered among the most marginalized people in southern Africa, the trackers return to their ancestral lands to succeed where advanced technology could not.
Guided by trance, memory, and the sacred ‘Elephant Dance,’ their journey becomes an odyssey through a land of living myth, where forest spirits guard ancient lakes and the Luchaze people remain the last watchers of a vanishing world. As they reconnect with the ‘Source of Life’—the waters that sustain the Okavango Basin across Angola, Namibia and Botswana—they seek not just lost elephants but a path back to identity, hope, and belonging.
Through Herzog’s visionary storytelling style, sweeping visuals, and rare access to the Luchaze people, Ghost Elephants is a lyrical tale of survival, reconnection, and the enduring power of ancient knowledge in the face of modern loss.”
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