Summary

Following the eruption of the Lakakigar volcano, Iceland in 1783, a sulphurous haze shrouded vaste swathes of the northern hemisphere, causing widespread crop failures, consequent famine and disease across Europe, parts of America, North Africa, and India. It is estimated to have killed millions of people. Using first-hand accounts from Iceland and from across Europe, Raban’s film connects this event with the current global political and ecological crisis. It continues recent film investigations into the use of the long single take and revisits Raban’s preoccupations with landscape film from the early 1970s.