YONHAP NEWS

(Movie Review) Sobering, unnerving documentary attests to urgency of global warming

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Yonhap) -- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions may be a double-edged sword for rapidly developing nations across the world who care about the future of this planet, but must also consider their own economic growth.

To the inhabitants of the Arctic region, however, the clock is ticking and the ice is melting too quickly to allow for debates.

"We are afraid of the future that has already begun," an elderly Inuit inhabitant of the northern region of Greenland says. "Animals and humans are starving alike. We are no longer hunters on the ice fields. We are more like fishermen in the melting Arctic sea."

Commemorating its 47th anniversary, MBC, one of South Korea's three largest broadcasters, produced "Tears in the Arctic," a three-part documentary series on the North Pole.

   The series garnered a record viewership rating of 12 percent and was sold to six European TV networks, which called it "one of the most noteworthy documentary works" of the year, a rare feat for a local television documentary.

   Overwhelmed by staggering requests to run the series again, co-producers of the documentary Hur Tae-jung and Cho Joon-mook decided to turn it into an 81-minute-long movie.

   "We did not want to be preachy about the issue," Cho said after the film's Seoul preview Monday. "We wanted to show viewers how beautiful the nature in the Arctic region is and help them realize what kind of loss the Earth is facing."

Tracing the snow-white Arctic sea ice, the film takes viewers to the wilderness of the North Pole where its producers spent nine grueling months shooting on location.

   Poignantly examining climate shifts that are already apparent in the region, the film highlights the dire challenges and plight of wildlife and humans living in the North Pole.

   The film pays particular attention to polar bears who depend on sea ice for their survival. With the ice no longer hard or thick enough to support their weight, the animals are increasingly being deprived of hunting ground, their faces a mask of hunger and exhaustion.

   Incorporating state-of-the-art camera Cineplex, a rarely used and expensive technology even by international standards, the team was able to produce spectacular results which include a 10-meter range shot of polar bears, including a mournful mother bear struggling to breast feed its cubs after having starved for months. A polar bear can lose as much as 20 kilograms of weight in three weeks if it fails to hunt down food during the period, the narrator explains.

The documentary also hones in on the plight of the Inuit people, and how unpredictable climate changes have made it harder for them to hunt for narwhals (polar whale) and other animals that were once found in abundance.

   Towards the end, the film returns to vivid images of the melting ice flows, a beautiful sight for those unaware of the destruction being wrought by mankind on the splendors of the Arctic sea ice.

   Tying the film in with the documentary is typical of the "one source, multi-use" strategy employed by South Korea as a more cost-effective way of producing cultural content. "Tears in the Arctic" will hit local cinemas beginning Oct. 15.

   hayney@yna.co.kr
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