Making a film about the climate crisis is a challenging task. How does a director navigate the urgency, scale, and looming catastrophe of this critical moment? Oscar-nominated director Sara Dosa of "The Fire of Love" returns to basics: family, love, and home. The documentary filmmaker collaborates with Icelandic poet and writer Andri Snær Magnason to create a portrait of his homeland's melting glaciers. "Time and Water" is more than just an environmental study; it's a moving story about what the Icelandic land has meant and still means to the Magnason family. By telling this family's story and exploring their connection to the land of their birth, Dosa creates a powerful documentary about a looming danger that many ignore.
Inspired by Magnason's book "Of Time and Water," the film unfolds like a long letter written by the author to someone close, perhaps one of his children. He tells the story of the melting glaciers, what they meant to the land, to him, and to his ancestors. "Of Time and Water" begins with the history of the area, how the glaciers formed and became important to Iceland, and then tells the contemporary story of how the climate crisis is leading to their disappearance. But the film quickly evolves into something deeper: a love story. It was on the glaciers that his research grandparents, Árni and Hulda, met, fell in love, and started their family.
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Viewers spend time with Magnason's grandparents, witnessing their long relationship and centuries-old love, whose lives mirror those of the glaciers that unite them. Magnason explains that as we age, so do the glaciers. The film vividly illustrates the effects of time: people develop wrinkles and gray hair, and glaciers turn blue. Conversely, due to the effects of global warming, the author's young daughter, Hulda, named after her great-grandmother, is unlikely to live on an Earth similar to the one her elders knew. By tracing this four-generation lineage, Magnason establishes connections between his family, their landscape, and Icelandic history, expressing his concerns for the future.
Dosa brings this narrative to life using a variety of elements from his documentary arsenal. In addition to Magnason's recollections and archival footage, the film features new footage shot by Pablo Álvarez-Mesa, as well as animation that fills in where these resources fall short. The soundtrack not only features his eloquent narration but also Icelandic folk hymns, creating a reverent, almost religious atmosphere. Yet, all of this is unified by brilliant editing that harmoniously blends with the poetic text. Editors Erin Kasper and Jocelyne Chapus, who also worked on "Fire of Love," are credited alongside Dosa and Magnason. Weaving every frame, archival and new, into the film's narrative is a daunting task, but this team achieves it and more. The natural rhythm and easy flow make the story accessible, engaging, and, above all, touching.
At certain moments in the film, when you close your eyes and simply listen to the words, something transformative happens—many passages beg to be quoted. When Magnason speaks of the glacier's burial, despite his even and calm voice, his words are so full of sadness that they serve as an alarm bell about the crisis we live in. The mention of the glacier's scent almost fills your nostrils with that fresh Arctic aroma. In Time and Water, Dosa transforms the climate crisis into something heartbreakingly tangible. She and her co-writers create not just a timely documentary but also a profoundly beautiful elegy for a world slipping away before our eyes.
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