![]() These parts of the film trade in the evocative repercussions of current environmental trends. Later on, towns are shown submerged in several feet of water and the streets and palm trees of Miami are buffeted by the wind and rain of Hurricane Irma. “Can’t you see it’s already melting?” The early thawing of the lake’s typically dense winter crust has had a very real and immediate cost. “Why the hell are you driving here?” one of the rescue team asks. ![]() During the scenes on Lake Baikal, the filmmakers inadvertently capture footage of a car disappearing through the ice and only two of its three occupants emerging from the water. ![]() How the climate crisis is affecting water – and how the consequences are affecting us – ripples throughout. The attempt here to convey the primordial force on show through music appears to be folly but while the decision feels misjudged in the moment, it becomes shrewdly apt in retrospect.įor while the power of water is undeniably of fundamental cinematic focus here, the film is clearly interested in the relationship dynamic between our species and water, despite the decision to decline overt commentary. Sometimes compositions are intended to elucidate scale and emphasise grandeur, while in other instances the images are framed so as to be abstracted – the experience of immersion overpowers the instinct to decipher what you’re seeing, or the context.Īt certain points, incongruous musical accompaniment breaks the spell, but there’s something perfect about the way the pounding, rumbling rock soundtrack (by the fittingly named Apocalyptica) utterly fails to match up to the awe-inspiring visuals. Ice churns in the chop, waves rear up to occupy almost the entire screen. Moving on from the implacable solid form it takes in Siberia, Kossakovsky deploys the familiar and terrifying sight of swathes of the Greenland ice sheet collapsing into the water to transition to roiling ocean. ![]() Less a traditional documentary than an audiovisual collage of astonishing footage and engulfing sound, Aquarela revels in being as mutable as its fluid star. In a few short minutes, the audience is introduced to various facets of the shapeshifting subject the unknowable, obdurate, precarious, mighty, destructive, ethereal giver and taker of life: H2O. ![]() However, this is water in its most fixed state, so it is fitting that the film adopts a complementary aesthetic. This opening sequence of Viktor Kossakovsky’s Aquarela seems to stand apart from the rest film, patiently observational where what follows is immersive and elemental. Germany / United Kingdom / Denmark / USA / Mexico / Greenland 2018 ![]()
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