After visiting Anselm Kiefer’s 200-acre art lot in the south of France, the director Wim Wenders decided to make a documentary about the artist. The two met in the early 1990s, but it wasn’t until Wenders toured the site that held Kiefer’s monumental sculptures and paintings, otherworldly installations, that he became spellbound. Filming in 3-D to create an immersive experience for the viewer, the director has chosen to focus his movie on Kiefer’s mind and imagination. Instead of a traditional biography, and the usual interviews of friends and colleagues, Wenders builds a portrait of the subject and his art. “We both grew up in a society that frantically tried to invent a future,” Wenders recently told the Los Angeles Times, referring to postwar Germany and its culture after fascism. Kiefer’s lifelong confrontation with his country’s guilt under Hitler brings profound undercurrents to a film that is not just beautiful but spiritually powerful. —Jeanne Malle

Anselm hits select theaters on December 8th. Its official release date is December 12th.