Antarktika: Ein Jahr im Eis

Powell's time-lapse cinematography, which seems to take up about half the running time, is astonishing - eerie, hypnotic and beautiful. This is a world very few will ever know firsthand - or want to - but Powell certainly reveals its beauties. The film is meant to be a chronicle, and there is no narrative per se. The last third of the film drags a bit here and there and some of the interviews get a tad repetitive. Those who like this will find Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World" an interesting contrast. Werner Herzog's focus is less on the place but the filmmaker's fascination with the people who go Antartica and their reasons for wanting to be there.

As someone with a longtime interest in polar exploration, I found this documentary enjoyable but not particularly special. I got halfway through, up to the point where Powell films a young seal, obviously lost and plaintively crying, crawling around by the base in apparent confusion. Presumably it has wandered far off course and is doomed to starve to death. Powell primly informs us that the rules forbid interfering with wildlife, then immediately loses interest and switches to a crew member complaining about the difficulty of keeping up with his family via email.

I don't know the circumstances, and I don't know precisely what small measures might have been taken to aid the stricken animal (offering it some food? Carrying it to the water? Putting it out of its misery?), but when it comes to this sort of decision -- providing some small humanitarian aid versus adhering to some idealized principle of "scientific detachment" (in the midst of a settlement constructed by humans) -- I think his refusal to help is needlessly cruel.

A documentary made through the lenses of Anthony Powell, photographer who spent many years in Antarctica lead you to the incredible journey to the world we really don't know much. The author describe just a portion of this amazing place over one year of time, combining short interviews, wonderful time lapse photography and just a glimpses of ordinary life of the small population that works on Antarctica. The movie opened many fascinating phenomena, from the mighty storms and winds, cold, 4 months in constant daylight and than darkness and the ways people adapts to those conditions, (T3 Syndrome, for example) which can really be a separate topics for more than one documentary.

Although the movie is not perfect, by my opinion, as it lack some inside to the geography of the place and at least some facts about the conditions there, it basically opened many more questions form me. This movie and its amazing topic with conditions where it was filmed basically don't give you the space to moan about imperfection that surely exists. Instead, it make you wondering about all what is seen, with a feeling that you would like to see much more.

Several years ago I watched Werner Herzog's documentary "Encounters at the End of the World", and I know that I would be interested in this movie.

It's hard to say this movie is better. They are both similar, but the photographer in "Antarctica: A Year on Ice" had the time to think and explore and set up shots that are just out of this world. I feel like I had the wonderful experience of living in Antarctica and for that I am thankful to this movie.

I won't go on at length, because this is a movie that has to be experienced. I sadly notice that some people have rated this low and it is hard to believe. Were they forced to watch it? I can't figure out why other than they are just not ready in a place to experience this idea.

This would be a little like going to another planet or living in a generation ship, isolated from humanity and yet maybe feeling your humanity so much the more.

Great movie ... 10/10.

Documentaries are definitely not for everyone. It takes a certain patience, curiosity and contemplation to watch the world living its ordinary life, just like it's the case with soap operas or reality shows that try to imitate the real life in vitro. And i consider myself lucky to be able to enjoy the documentaries, since it really is a unique genre that offers some unique experience to a viewer.

Honestly, i didn't expect too much from this film. In my experience with nature documentaries, one has to be both really big and really professional to shoot a truly decent documentary, that is why i absolutely adore the BBC films with David Attenborough, moderately accept the Discovery and National Geographic products and am outright sceptical about everything else. And this movie had that amateur indie feeling that in 99 cases out of 100 means that the outcome is bound to be mediocre.

To my big (and pleasant) surprise, this was that very "1 out of 100" exception. Yes, the movie is basically made by a single man, a time lapse photography enthusiast who spent several years working on a polar base in Antarctica. But the fact that we are being introduced to that vast and secluded icy world by someone who's not a stranger to it himself makes it a different experience entirely. Anthony "Antz" Powell doesn't simply look for some "fancy stuff" to film and later present to us. He actually lives through all these moments, and we are allowed to witness them, which makes this film a rather intimate experience.

It may sound silly, but another great thing about this movie is that it's not just about Antarctica. Though it does share with us the amazing beauty of its pristine nature, it doesn't sell Antarctica as the main and only star. After all, this huge frozen world can be equally beautiful and depressing. Instead, we look at this continent and the life that managed to bind itself to it through the eyes of the fellow workers, people who spent months, or even years, there doing their job and whose impression of Antarctica and the way humans interact with it is the most honest and true.

It's probably not very groundbreaking, but illustrating life in Antarctica with simple people's lives and experiences makes this movie really heartfelt. It is a documentaty, but you invest yourself emotionally into it, you care about the people shown in it, follow their stories, connect to their problems, feelings and dreams. This removes restraints between you and the objects shown in the movie, making you more than just an impassive spectator, almost like a friend to those people. You do not simply consume facts or imagery, as the so-so documentaries offer you to do, you actually live through them.

Maybe i'm fooling myself, but 'Antarctica: A Year on Ice' gave me a bit of a feeling of actually spending a year there. And what it is if not a sign that the film did its job well?