Aquarela

PG

Released Aug 16, 2019

1 hr. 29 min.

Documentary

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List

86%

63 Reviews

Tomatometer

32%

Fewer than 50 Verified Ratings

Audience Score

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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sup.steve8 L

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

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

09/29/19

Full Review

Howard W

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.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/26/19

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RSM

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

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/20/19

Full Review

Jesse A

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.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/26/19

Full Review

Kyle M

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)

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/03/24

Full Review

Audience Member

There's no real plot or framework to speak of, but the camera work is pretty spectacular. I think many of the scenes could have been cut quite a lot shorter, but there's some pretty interesting stuff here. For example, who knew there were glaciers on Lake Baikal? Not me. -- One thing that could perhaps have made this film better would have been more -- or any -- narration. Not over-the-top non-stop Werner Herzog style narration, but at least a little chatter here and there to let us in on what we're seeing.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

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Aquarela: Trailer 1

1:46

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

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

Mar 25, 2020

Full Review

Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

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

Rated: 2/5

Dec 13, 2019

Full Review

Ben Nicholson

Sight & Sound

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.

Dec 11, 2019

Full Review

Alex Bentley

CultureMap

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.

Feb 18, 2021

Full Review

Susan Granger

SSG Syndicate

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

Rated: 6/10

Apr 22, 2020

Full Review

Alexa Dalby

Dog and Wolf

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

Rated: 4/5

Dec 13, 2019

Full Review

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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
Executive Producer: Sawsan Asfari, Madge Bray, Isabel Davis, Frank Lehmann, Mark Thomas
Screenwriter: Aimara Reques
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Ma.Ja.De Filmproduktion, BFI Film Fund, Louverture Films, Danish Documentary Production Aps
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

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