victor Kossakovsky is the author of several ambitious and powerful documentaries, including 2018's Aquarela, about the climate crisis, and 2020's Gunda, about animal consciousness. Now he has created this monolithic, almost wordless and vehement meditation on concrete and stone; the building materials that are so substantial and yet also appear temporary and almost fragile in the many drone shots of demolished and demolished buildings – their durability is finally revealed in the almost overwhelming question of how to simply clear everything away, how to clear the shattered and useless rubble gets rid of. The mysterious footage of stones being crushed or broken in quarries shows the violence of stone extraction comparable to future destruction.
There are some stunning images here of destroyed buildings in Ukraine destroyed by the war and those in Turkey destroyed by the 2023 earthquake; These are contrasted with the considerations of the Italian architect Michele de Lucchi, who studied the ancient ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon and also created a stone circle in his garden, which he wittily refers to as a “magic circle”.
In a final “epilogue” sequence, De Lucchi talks to Kossakovsky about what he sees as the secret of modern architecture's disposableness and obsolescence, constructing buildings that may not last more than 40 or 50 years, whereas in ancient times buildings did intended to last thousands of years. Kossakovsky also asks why we create ugly, boring buildings when we know how to build beautiful ones. Essentially legitimate questions, although De Lucchi might point out that many or most buildings naturally last far longer than 40 or 50 years, and that many buildings from the classical period are ruined or have disappeared. Maybe he even wonders why we make ugly and boring films when we “know” how to make beautiful ones.
These are important questions, but I found the way the images were put together (accompanied by a loud score by Evgueni Galperine) a bit unfocused and even slightly indulgent or redundant, without making it clear to the viewer what we are seeing and what Where. Nevertheless, the film is so impressive, especially on the big screen, that it almost represents a kind of land art itself.