Aquarela

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1:46

Aquarela

PG

2019

1h 29m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

87%

Tomatometer

62 Reviews

32%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Verified Ratings

From massive waves to melting ice, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky travels around the world to capture stunning images of the beauty and raw power of water.

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Critics Consensus

Patiently constructed and beautifully filmed, Aquarela views man's relationship with water through a sobering -- and awe-inducing -- lens.

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

03/25/2020

A breathtaking and offensive documentary in the vein of Werner Herzog's Lessons of Darkness.

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Kevin Maher

The Times (UK)

12/13/2019

2/5

In the face of an actual, urgent and existing climate crisis, however, it feels slightly slack.

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Ben Nicholson

Sight & Sound

12/11/2019

In this vision, water feels like a very old god: a pagan one that is volatile, wrathful, impassive to the perils of man and yet majestic and serene.

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Alex Bentley

CultureMap

02/18/2021

Aquarela is one of the rare documentaries that may cause a sharp divide because of how the visuals and sounds attack the viewer at every turn.

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Susan Granger

SSG Syndicate

04/22/2020

6/10

Immersive, cinematically overpowering - delivering an (unstated) environmental message that - with global warming - we're all living on thin ice.

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Alexa Dalby

Dog and Wolf

12/13/2019

4/5

[Aquarela's] like a very deep, and much more artful, National Geographic project.

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sup.steve8 L

09/29/2019

I wanted to like this movie but it is unwatchable and incoherent. 6 people in the theater and no one made it to the end. Watch anything else or stick toothpicks in your eyes anything but this

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Howard W

08/26/2019

Though at times a bit slow, Aquarela is more a work of art than an ordinary film. There are moments on the screen and the soundtrack that are simply overwhelming and simultaneously beautiful. Often, I sat there in awe of how several of the sequences were filmed. If you go, go without expectations and just let the experience literally wash over you.

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RSM

08/20/2019

EVERYTHING! Very repetitious and after a while boring- Half the theater left!

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Jesse A

08/18/2019

I don’t understand how all these critics could like this garbage. It was repetitive, boring, and felt like it would never end. It seems like the director had no editor and just had tons of b-roll he threw in. The initial scenes of the car rescues started out interesting, but went nowhere fast. It was amateurish, ugly, sonically abrasive, lacking in vision, and had no point. 1/2 star is generous.

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Madam D

@Madam1948 2d

Too much about ice, and more an art film than a documentary.

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Kyle M

03/03/2024

Meditative under observative patience over occasional stunning imagery that's probably best to experience theatrically, albeit intangibly directed with no insights given besides being inferiorly wondrous. (B)

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Victor Kossakovsky

Director

Aimara Reques

Writer

Heino Deckert

Producer

Sigrid Dyekjær

Producer

Aimara Reques

Producer

Sawsan Asfari

Executive Producer

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Aquarela: Trailer 1

1:46

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Synopsis

From massive waves to melting ice, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky travels around the world to capture stunning images of the beauty and raw power of water.

Director: Victor Kossakovsky
Producer: Heino Deckert, Sigrid Dyekjær, Aimara Reques
Screenwriter: Aimara Reques
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Danish Documentary Production Aps, Ma.Ja.De Filmproduktion, Louverture Films, BFI Film Fund
Rating: PG (Some Thematic Elements)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Russian
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 16, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 12, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA): $306.6K
Runtime: 1h 29m

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