Aftershock: Séisme sur le toit du monde

If you take nothing else from this documentary, take this: The absolute disconnect each of the visitors has to nature, self-awareness, personal responsibility, and their own humanity represented in this documentary is appalling. I've never remotely considered climbing Mt Everest an accomplishment but a crime against nature. The destruction of the mountain, the pollution, the garbage left behind, the learned lacked of humanity while stepping over the dead to get to an ego-driven checkbox on some egocentric list? Disgusting. If I were Everest I'd blow every week.

At the beginning, they tried to claim that "most ppl think it's just a bunch of rich ppl... some are just ordinary!" Ordinary?? How absolutely insulting and insane. Rich people are some of the most ordinary uncreative dangerously stupid inconsiderate creatures on earth. And this movie - while excellent- also leaves the viewer wondering why? Why make a doc about rich western ppl who have no connection to Nepal? The hotel owner, his employees and the reps of the govt and rescue effort, the villagers should have been the focus. Yes.

But I am also glad they showed the Israeli men too. They wear their victimhood like a badge of honor, continuously disrespecting the villagers who lost EVERYTHING, speaking as if the villagers were not equal to them, that THEIR lives were MORE important. They made me sick to my stomach Never once was there a mention - "if we are stuck here maybe we can find a way to help these people". Never happened once. Disgusting people.

Western culture has lost the plot. We are so beyond arrogant and ignorant this movie reveals that we, in our heart of hearts truly believe every mountain, every foreign culture, every THING belongs to us - to use and abuse at our will.

And the photographer? I'm waiting to see if she sells her photos and donates every penny to the villagers. Otherwise she's just as bad - and she never criticizes the behavior of her Israeli buddies either. The sorrow I felt for the people who lost their homes and loved ones still stays with me. The anger and grief I have for the selfishness of every visitor (except the HIV patient who gave compelling reasons for his decisions) still sickens me.

Parts seem to drag a bit but for the most part, it moves along at a good pace.

There's a lot of skipping between locations and going back and forth in time- stick to a timeline and move forward. If there's backstory needed, then tell that first before moving ahead.

It's fascinating what people will rationalize in the name of survival, and at some point, for some people, surviving took a back seat.

I'll not give away one of the underlying plots, but will say that from the moment Yaar starts telling his version, it feels manipulative, gross and selfish. There's absolutely no reason to do what was done, and leaving items exactly where you found them would have allowed their family members to find it. I can completely understand the drive to survive and to find necessities to carry on but to do what he did should make him ashamed.

As Episode 1 of "Aftershock - Everest and the Nepal Earthquake" (2022 release from the UK; 3 episodes; total running time 149 minutes) opens, it is "Saturday, 25 April 2015, Mount Everest", as we see several climbers at the Kumba Icefall just before noon, and a devastating avalanche is descending Everest. We then go to "Three Days Earlier, Everest Base Camp", as we are introduced to several of the climbers... At this point we are less than 5 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this documentary mini-series is directed by Olly Lambert ("One Day In Gaza"). Here Lambert looks back to the truly awful events that happened in Nepal. Please note that the documentary is misleadingly titled. Yes, Everest is featured, but only in about one-third of the movie, Another third deals with how people in Nepal's poorly constructed capital Kathmandu deal with the events. And another third deals with how people in the LangTang valley and village deal with the events. But of course "Aftershock - Kathmadu and the Nepal Earthquake" or "Aftershock - The LangTang Valley and the Nepal Earthquake" doesn't have the same ring to it... Along the way, people that survived it all now tell their tale. "We acted out of survival instinct", comments one. The documentary includes both amazing and frankly frightening footage. I don't recall having seen Kathmandu in such vivid detail. And we also get not only the very good, but also the very ugly (cue: the 3 Israelis... what in the world were they thinking?). Last but not least, please do not confuse this documentary with a 2022 documentary from the US simply called "Aftershock".

"Aftershock - Everest and the Nepal Earthquake" recently premiered on Netflix. I binge-watched all 3 episodes last night, and these 2 1/2 hours just flew by. If you are in the mood to see the devastation of a poor country (which also happens to have Mount Everest) caused by a massive earthquake, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

The emotions, environment and the magnitude of the damage was well captured in the series. I remember hearing about the earthquake causing damage in Kathmandu but I also wondered what happened to the people climbing that season.

It's great to see that the photographers were capturing the images and people with cameras had their cameras on to capture the raw emotions. Throughout the series, I was engaged with the content produced in the documentary.

It is surprising to see how an entire village was erased in moments. Absolutely disgusted to see Israelis looting a village at such a sensitive time when money was of no value at the time, and to add salt on wound, they are justifying their act. What else could be expected of them. I guess this is their natural survival instinct. I am glad one selfish thought of getting himself rescued which eventually helped everybody.

The real interviews and footage are amazing. The reenactments, less so. It is very interesting from a human interaction perspective. It is also heartbreaking sometimes, as you might imagine. Ever since reading "Into Thin Air, I have always been fascinated AND repulsed by Everest climbs. For the most part, they are for people that just have enough money to add the climb to their "accomplishments," all at the expense of the brave and competent sherpas that eke out a living from what has become a tourist destination. It's absurd really. The Langtang village interviews are eye-opening, that people can find conflict even when they should be working together.