[2] Filming was problematic: in Cameroon the crew were imprisoned because cameraman Schmidt-Reitwein's name was similar to the name of a German mercenary who was hiding from the authorities and had recently been sentenced to death in absentia.

[1] The film was initially intended to be presented with a science fiction narrative, casting the images as landscapes of a dying planet.

"[1] The images and narration are combined with an eclectic soundtrack which features works by Handel, Mozart and Couperin,[3] as well as Blind Faith, Leonard Cohen and the British Third Ear Band.

Eisner, author of a book on German cinema, The Haunted Screen, had praised Herzog's first film Signs of Life (1968), and her casting was a reciprocal tribute to the woman he once called his "most important inner support".

[5] Herzog said "...when [Fata Morgana] was finally released, it was a big success with young people who had taken various drugs and was seen as one of the first European art-house psychedelic films, which of course it has no connection with at all.

"[3] Many of the images used in Fata Morgana would appear in Herzog's later work: the vehicle aimlessly turning circles recurs in Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) and Stroszek (1977); the decaying animal carcasses reappear in Cobra Verde (1987); the welding goggles are worn by the two blind inmates in Even Dwarfs Started Small; and the image of the temple in the desert is used in Kaspar's dream of the Caucasus in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.

[1] In December 2013 the film was screened by West Hollywood's Cinefamily with a live performance by American drone metal band Earth.