These seven siblings saw the glaciers disappear long before anyone else noticed.

At the beginning of the last century, seven siblings – three women and four men – settled in a remote farmstead at the foot of Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier. They had almost no formal education, but they taught themselves: they measured, drew, photographed and recorded everything that happened to the glacier and its surroundings. Thus, they became among the first to witness the glacier’s retreat. Decades later, photographer Ragnar Axelsson, who spent several summers there in his youth, returns to the farmhouse. The house is almost untouched. He leafs through the siblings’ diaries and photographs, whilst listening to the glacier cracking outside the window.

Documentary filmmakers Pepe Andreu and Rafa Molés build a bridge between two different eras: flipping through a family album in the dim light of the room, which evokes times gone by, whilst showing majestic shots of ice that has already vanished. The sound design stretches the glacier’s barely audible creaking into a long sigh. Here, climate change is embodied in the story of one family, one house and one quiet vigil at the end of the world.

Mikk Granström