“Aquarela” takes audiences on a deeply cinematic journey through water's transformative beauty and raw power. Captured at a rare 96 frames per second, the film serves as a visceral wake-up call, revealing that humans are no match for the sheer force and capricious will of Earth's most precious element. From the precarious frozen waters of Russia’s Lake Baikal to Miami during Hurricane Irma, and Venezuela’s mighty Angel Falls, water is the film’s central character. Director Victor Kossakovsky captures its many personalities with startling cinematic clarity, accompanied by Finnish heavy metal composer Eicca Toppinen of Apocalyptica.
“The sound of splintering ice haunts this excellent and disturbing account of collapsing glaciers, violent storms, flooded landscapes and rising sea levels. Kossakovsky’s ‘Aquarela’ is an absorbing and disturbing spectacle, a sensory film about the climate crisis.” —Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
In this dazzling survey of man against water, mysteries and revelations are as integral to its impact as our certainty of the dangers faced by its makers. An eye-popping, sometimes overpowering documentary, begins with a hazardous rescue operation unlike anything you might have seen before. — Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
There will be a post screening conversation with director Victor Kossakovsky, who premiered Aquarela at Venice Film Festival, winning numerous international awards for this spectacle of a cinematic journey across the globe.
