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Bookmark this pagePetropolis (2009)
Director: Peter Mettler
Movie review
From Time Out London
The subtitle – ‘Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands’ – only tells you some of what you need to know about this flyover view of the world’s second largest oil reserve in the throes of rapid exploitation – a process that each day releases levels of carbon dioxide equal to all the cars in Canada. Limiting context to a few titles at the beginning and a voiceover at the end, filmmaker Peter Mettler (cinematographer on 2006’s ‘Manufactured Landscapes’) gives us staggering images of this remote region of Canada from the air: his style suggests a spy plane hijacked by a visual artist moonlighting as an eco-warrior. Slo-mo photography gives the film a ghostly feel, while Mettler’s lingering on the details offers an otherwordly view of landscape and industry as oily sand starts to look like marble and vile brown waste even echoes chocolate. We’re getting used to seeing eco-docs on our screens (the more prosaic ‘Dirty Oil’ tackled the same subject back in March), but this hallucinatory, 43-minute film is more of a protesting art piece than a docu-essay.Author: Dave Calhoun
Time Out London Issue 2073: May 13-19, 2010
User reviews of this film
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- Andrew said...
- Posted on May 12 2010 20:50 I am a big fan of Peter Mettler's work, and this is an exceptional piece, well worth watching on the big screen to appreciate the imagery fully.
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Cast & crew
Director: Peter Mettler
Genre(s): Documentaries
Duration: 43 mins
UK Release: May 14 2010
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