The effects of global warming are more evident in the areas that are situated the furthest and the closest to sea level, with both actually having to face the consequences of the intense ice melting. Bhutanese Tshering Gyeltsen and Dutch Peter Jan van Der Burgh direct a documentary on the issues Bhutan faces, since the melting ice is weakening the walls of the Himalayan glacial lakes, which threaten to flood the cities that are situated on the lower heights.
86 Centimetres… is streaming on Beskop
The two directors follow 350 women and men who walked nine days up to Lunana, where they put up camp for three months, and proceeded on manually digging an outlet to reduce the water level in the Thorthormi glacial lake and thus prevent it from bursting. In a parallel narrative, they also focus on one of these workers, 21-year-old farmer Tashi, who participated in the expedition, determined to secure his unborn child's future and help prevent a terrible disaster.
This duality actually works very well for the narrative, since it manages to highlight both the everyday life in Bhutan through the thoughts of Tashi, and the difficulties of an expedition that had 350 people working with their hands in – 5°C, in an area where the people who brought them food had to walk two hours to reach. The dangers they had to face are juxtaposed with their hope of accomplishing something great, a concept that seems to be the one driving all those people.
At the same time, and despite the difficulties that characterize such an extreme setting such as the Bhutanese one, the directors do not fail to also show its beauties, with the snowed tops creating a rather picturesque setting. Furthermore, the path towards the site and even more, the return, induce the film with road movie elements and even brief ones of thriller, adding to the depth of the narrative.
Lastly, the sequences showing the Prime Minister speaking on the TV regarding the dangers the country faces due to global warming are a nice touch overall, allowing the setting to change from the mountainous one, while informing the viewer of the situation.
“86 Centimetres…” is a very interesting documentary that manages to inform and highlight at the same time, while retaining a very appealing cinematic approach that also benefits the most by the duration of the film, which, at 40 minutes, presents its subject with every detail, without tiring the viewer in any way.
