Aquarela

“Through the lens of water you are able to experience all known human emotion,” explains Victor Kossakovsky, who has been a welcome guest at IDFA since his debut. During a stay on the Baltic coast, he noticed how water changes from hour to hour with new colors, movements and energy. Aquarela is his attempt to capture all these different emotions, be they exquisite or unnerving. There's ecstasy and inspiration, but also destruction and human suffering.

We see cars sinking into Lake Baikal, which thawed weeks earlier than normal. Caught in an intense storm, a sturdy sailing ship is no more than a helpless plaything. A wall of water surges through Miami during Hurricane Irma. Here, humans are reduced to supporting roles as Kossakovsky prioritizes the breathtaking scenes that reveal the many personalities of water—in the wild waves and gentle brooks, on melting ice caps and at the highest waterfall in the world.