‘Haulout’ Review: a damning environmental report
With each passing year, the deteriorating climate change crisis is causing more and more complications that are threatening the lives of human beings as well as many more species. To combat the harmful and unscientific discourse around climate change denial, many filmmakers have tried to document the pernicious changes in our environment that are facilitated by global warming. One fascinating example of this is the stunning documentary Haulout.
Directed by siblings Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev, Haulout focuses on the efforts of a Russian scientist named Maxim Chakilev, who records and studies the activities of walruses in the Chukchi Sea. While it’s difficult to imagine how such an important subject can be contained within the limiting structures of a short film, Haulout is a powerful experience that transports the viewers to the distant realms inhabited by the walruses.
During an interview at the Berlinale, Evgenia opened up about the origins of the fascinating project and the background of the directorial team: “As a photographer, I have been working on a project looking at places and communities in the coastal region of the Russian Arctic for many years,” she said. “My brother Maxim and I are from the Republic of Yakutia in the Far East, and we were always curious to visit Chukotka, a neighbouring region.”
The strongest aspect of environmental documentaries is the undeniable nature of visual proof, and Haulout excels in that regard. The cinematography is simply overwhelming, so much so that the images on the screen don’t seem like they belong in a documentary. In fact, the directors’ unique approach to the visual language almost makes it seem that the documentary is working within the surreal frameworks of science-fiction.
Evgenia and Maxim utilise the concept of the “big reveal” brilliantly, painting an incredible portrait of a land whose every inch is covered by walruses looking for refuge. Maxim said: “When I opened the door, I saw tens of thousands of walruses in front of me. There was a feeling of panic in the air. Walruses were coming out in thousands from the sea. The steam from their bodies created fog. It all felt like a continuation of my dreams.”
Haulout unflinchingly records the desperation and death that haunts the walruses who are forced to cramp themselves on land masses instead of resting on the sea ice that is rapidly melting. Starting with the grotesque spectacle of tens of thousands of walruses huddled against each other, the film cuts to the eventually deserted landscape that is only littered with the dead bodies of those who didn’t survive – the casualties of a constantly worsening ecological disaster.
Although Haulout failed to win the Academy Award for ‘Best Short Film’ at this year’s edition of the Oscars, it is an undoubtedly essential addition to the mounting cinematic protests against climate change denial and governmental inaction.
Watch the film below.
