There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.

The band took its name from the Popol Vuh a manuscript of Quiché Maya kingdom after watching Herzog's Fata Morgana in which Lotte Eisner reads parts of the Popol Vuh. He won Bavarian Film Award in 1988 for Cobra Verde and International Documentary Association Award for Little Dieter Needs to Fly in 1998. His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera or operatic themes.

French filmmaker François Truffaut once called Herzog "the most important film director alive" and American film critic Roger Ebert stated that Herzog "has never created a single film that is compromised shameful made for pragmatic reasons or uninteresting. Even his failures are spectacular. ".