“Time and Water” Review: Exploring Personal and Ecological Transformation

Remember when a plaque was placed at the site of a glacier that melted in Iceland?

It read:

A letter to the future

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all of our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.

August 2019

415ppm CO2

I remember reading about it the day it was installed. At the time, I thought, "Wow, the first of many plaques." I also got the deep-seated dread that I may never see a glacier in my life at this rate.

Flash forward to today, and the documentary "Time and Water" tells the story of how that plaque came to be, and it hits hard. The film follows the one who wrote the inscription, Andri Snær Magnason, facing both the glacier's memory disappearing and that of his own grandparents who explored that very site in their youth. I don't think a better person could have been picked to write that plaque's message.

What begins as a personal act of preservation becomes a wider reflection on how people hold onto places, stories, and relationships when the world around them is changing faster than memory can contain. Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa, she captures that desperate need to hold on perfectly. It helps that Iceland's landscape is somewhat stark to begin with.

Speaking with director Sara Dosa, she admitted that parts of the film were shot inside melting glaciers, intentionally. I found it mesmerizing, and you hear the water moving; it's melting so fast. You can't help but think that time isn't going to stop for anything. I wish I could get a 24/7 camera feed from inside one. She said it was important to capture that feeling.

The film is narrated and follows Andri Snær Magnason's journey to creating that plaque's inscription. It turns out that he has been recording/capturing his family history his whole life. He has so much recorded and saved that it seemed I was watching two documentaries in one.

The main focus was on his own grandparents, who have scientifically explored the very glacier he's been requested to memorialize. Videos and images play of them exploring the glacier when they were young, which in the imagery seems like it would never disappear. Greeted with time-lapse and before-and-after images, you're left shocked. The loss of his grandparents mirrors the loss of the ancient ice, linking personal mourning with ecological transformation. It's perfect.

Exactly how he comes to his conclusions, I'll leave to you to discover for yourself.

It all left me looking back on my past, my now. The people in my life and how they have changed and become older. The transformations from forests to neighborhoods around me. The decay of older parts of town. I was honestly floating around these thoughts during the film and for a while after. We all need to document more of our lives. I know I do.

This film is a great companion to Sara Dosa's previous work, "Fire and Love." Few times have I seen scientific endeavors and humanity captured so harmoniously tangled.

Well worth a watch. Time and Water releases in theatres today, May 29, 2026.