written by: Sara Dosa, Jocelyne Chaput, Erin Casper, and Andri Snær Magnason
produced by: Jameka Autry, Shane Boris, Sara Dosa & Elijah Stevens
directed by: Sara Dosa
rated: not rated
runtime: 90 min.
U.S. release date: May 29, 2026 (limited) 

“Time and Water,” director Sara Dosa’s follow-up to her award-winning, Oscar-nominated 2022 documentary “Fire of Love,” continues her exploration of fascinating connections between humans and nature. She deemed that film, which followed married French volcanologists and their passionate obsession with volcanoes, a love story. In her latest documentary, Dosa focuses on Andri Snær Magnason,  Icelandic writer/poet/environmentalist, as he simultaneously tackles two tragedies: the death of one of his country’s glaciers and the passing of his beloved grandparents. These losses are covered by sharing personal video archives of the past and present, inevitably succincly weaving together themes of family and memory with time and water.

Magnason wrote a book called “On Time and Water”, published in 2019, but Dosa used that as a guide, since “Time and Water” is more of a companion piece than it is an adaptation. Dosa realized that Magnason has a unique perspective on the fragile state of Iceland’s ice, as he bridges the gap between scientific data and emotional reality. As the narrator, he draws parallels between the finite nature of human life and the geological lifespan of glaciers, making the abstract concept of climate change more relatable. The documentary ultimately suggests that the water holding the memories of the past is the same water that will define the future, creating a continuous loop of history and responsibility.

By combining Magnason’s personal archives, spanning generations of his family, with Iceland’s historic archives, a connection is established between a mythic past and an uncertain future. The history of Magnason’s family is linked to Iceland’s earth, but what happens when the memories frozen in glaciers melt away? Are they similar to the history that fades when a loved one dies? Dosa has created a nature documentary that is also a poetic autobiography, stepping aside to allow Magnason to guide us on a whimsical, nostalgic intergenerational journey.

As “Time and Water” starts, Magnason’s voice can be heard asking whoever finds this time capsule in the future to press play. Immediately after that, we hear the whirring of videotape and see surreal close-ups of ice filling the frame, and then Magnason tells the story of how Iceland was formed by fire and ice. He shares, “We have lived with the ice for a thousand years,” recalling how Iceland formed in a collision of fire and ice. He shares that he’s now 53 years old, narrating from the present, as a montage of Iceland plays like a personal slideshow, filled with beautiful imagery of ice, the running water of cool springs, the ash and fire of volcanoes, along with footage of wild ponies and birds, the ethereal northern lights, vibrant green grasses, and lavender-pink sunsets.

He then tells the story of his grandparents, Jón and Hulda, who were among the first explorers of Iceland’s many glaciers, gathering not only their oral histories of these expeditions but also presenting beautiful color footage shot in the 1950s. In one sequence, the footage goes deep inside a glacier, capturing not only its magnitude but also its unique sound. Just as trees make sounds, so do massive stretches of ice – as the earth moves, so does what’s on it. Magnason posits that the ice is alive.

In that sense, the documentary is perhaps at its most poignant and emotional when we see Magnason say goodbye to Okjökull. This 2019 memorialization is perhaps what Magnason is best known for, and Dosa includes footage of the event, showing a supportive crowd gathering around him to commemorate the death of the Icelandic glacier. A copper plate titled “A Letter to the Future” is installed on the site for the event, and Magnason has been tasked with writing what appears on the plaque. His message is a bleak one for future generations: “This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”  It’s essentially a warning that highlights the same themes found in the documentary itself: the desire to communicate across time as the physical world rapidly alters. There’s a global CO2 level statistic with a timestamp listed at the bottom of the plaque, serving as a marker for that specific date and time and capturing a moment in the planet’s history.

By featuring Magnason alongside the land his family held so dear, Dosa makes the plea for conservation personal while recognizing the impact of time on people and land. If she continues on this path of making documentaries that connect humans with nature in such a personal and poignant way, I am fully on board and look forward to what she does next.

“Time and Water” follows in the same path as “Fire of Love”, in other ways as well. Both documentaries premiered at Sundance, and both were produced by National Geographic Documentary Films. While it opens in a limited release in the States this weekend, you can expect to find “Time and Water” on Disney+ later this year.

RATING: ***