Documentary 'Aquarela' sends chilling message about climate change

“Aquarela” - ★ ★ ½

The documentary “Aquarela” opens with overhead shots of what appears to be an iced-over lake, accompanied by a score of headbanging power chords by composer Eicca Toppinen of the Finnish “cello-metal” band Apocalyptica. Viewers of this almost wordless, at times quasi-abstract meditation on the power of water may experience initial disorientation — even confusion — about what they're looking at. But a form, and then a narrative of sorts, gradually emerge.

In the first little chunk of the globe-trotting film, which jumps from Siberia to Greenland to Mexico (and other points) without warning, director Viktor Kossakovsky turns his camera on Russian police who are tasked with fishing out cars from under the ice of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, after drivers have ill-advisedly ventured onto its partly frozen surface.

“Can't you see the ice is melting already?” a cop asks, incredulously, of a couple of numskulls who recently lost their vehicle, having narrowly escaped by swimming out the hatchback. “Usually it melts three weeks later than this,” says one of the motorists, in a rejoinder that hints at the films' theme: global warming. The shadow of climate change lurks just under the blue watery surface of the beautiful yet unsettling film.

“Through the lens of water you are able to experience all known human emotion,” Kossakovsky has said, explaining that “Aquarela” is his attempt to capture this metaphorical rainbow.

Yet the documentary, which also spotlights Hurricane Irma, devastating floods, melting glaciers and giant ocean waves, mostly focuses on the unsettling side. In large part, its message seems to be: Water is scary. But what we're doing to the planet is even more disturbing.

“Aquarela” is a visual tour de force. But as startling as the crisp and, yes, dramatic images may be, a sense of slight monotony sometimes creeps in after so many shots of ice, calving glaciers, heaving waves, rain, snow, etc.

Despite these occasional moments of tedium, however, the film is at once chilling and likely to make your blood boil.

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Directed by: Viktor Kossakovsky

Other: A Sony Pictures Classics release. In Russian, Spanish and English with subtitles. Rated PG. 89 minutes