Ice People (2008) User Reviews

Gorgeous, meditative documentary on life in Antarcitca

[runamokprods · 8/10 · 24 May 2010]

Beautifully shot documentary on the day-to-day life of a group of scientists in Antarctica.

Very little in the way of narration, or an obvious organizing principal, this is more meditative, observational (and occasionally more meandering) than your usual documentary, But it somehow that style feels exactly right for the surrealistic majesty of the settings.

Ms. Aghion is proving to be one of our more interesting and brave documentarians. (I'd urge those interested in documentaries to check out her series of 4 films about the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda).

So what is it like around the South Pole?

[wavecat13 · 8/10 · 1 December 2021]

This was a fascinating look at life somewhere near the South Pole. The film follows a group of scientists and students who are involved in a research project that involves digging up soil samples and analyzing them. We get to know a little about the members of this group and how they go about their lives and work. The sweeping, majestic views of ice covered mountains and frozen plains are stunning, and it is worth watching this just to see those.

Having said that, the film does have some flaws. The audience never gets any kind of overview of what is going on - who the people are, what their project is all about, what they have to do to survive in this frozen wilderness. This is not a television documentary; director Aghion prefers showing over telling, but she does have things to show us. And at 77 minutes, it is short for a feature-length film. I am still very glad I saw this, tho -- I have never seen anything like it before.