Where the Green Ants Dream () is a 1984 English-language West German film co-written and directed by Werner Herzog, made in Australia. Based on a true story about Indigenous land rights in Australia but slated as a mixture of fact and fiction, the film only got a limited release in Australia and was not well received by critics, although it did fare a bit better in Europe and North America. Plot Based partly on the Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd ("Gove land rights") case about Indigenous land rights on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, it was a mix of fact and fiction. The ant mythology was claimed as Herzog's own, but some First Nations peoples did consider the green ant as a totem animal that created the world and humans. Wandjuk Marika noted that the ant Dreaming belief existed in a clan that lived near Oenpelli in the Northern Territory. The film is set in the Australian outback and is about a land feud between a mining company called Ayers (based on Nabalco) and the local Aboriginal people. The Aboriginal people claim that an area the mining company wishes to work on is the place where green ants dream, and that disturbing them will destroy humanity. Production Herzog made use of professional actors as well as Aboriginal activists from the Northern Territory who were involved in the case and local Aboriginal people from the main filming location, the desert town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. It was also filmed in and near Melbourne, Victoria. Wandjuk Marika, recommended to Herzog by Phillip Adams, was a leader for the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people, an artist and musician who was involved in activism for Aboriginal rights. His didgeridoo music is used in the movie, and several members of his family were cast in the film. The contract with Herzog allowed the Marikas to make enough money to move from Yirrkala to their ancestral region of Yalangbara (aka Port Bradshaw). Cast Bruce Spence as Lance Hackett Wandjuk Marika as Miliritbi Roy Marika as Dayipu Ray Barrett as Cole Norman Kaye as Baldwin Ferguson Ralph Cotterill as Fletcher Nick Lathouris as Arnold Basil Clarke as Judge Blackburn Ray Marshall as Solicitor General Coulthard Dhungala I. Makika as the "mute" Gary Williams as Watson Tony Llewellyn-Jones as Fitzsimmons Robert Brissenden Michael Edols as young attorney Bob Ellis as supermarket manager