Beautifully, quietly shot with a fully immersive soundscape that draws you in from frame one. From there, the film slowly unveils sights and sounds that will haunt your memory - and your conscious - long after its 25 minutes are over, demanding what we as a species are going to do about the mess we've made of the planet.

Even without a note of music, the film achieves a dream-like quality and there are scenes that sear themselves into your retinas and shake you to your core. No spoilers but I am holding fast to "dream-like" over "nightmare-inducing," as the film is not just an indictment of our inaction addressing the man-made climate crisis but a rallying cry to do so before it is too late.

I watched this movie courtesy of The New Yorker's website as I began my prepping for Oscars 2023 telecast. The basic description alluded to the topic I was to watch, but the overall film is very impactful. Having seen the movie "Arctic Tale" many times, narrated by Queen Latifah, I was aware of walrus migration and their need for sea ice. This documentary, which is almost in a movie format, shows the impact of less/no sea ice for the walrus' to rest on as they approach land where they may feed, mate, and rest. The sheer enormity of the walrus gathering is something I've never seen even in a National Geographic film. I applaud the filmmakers for documenting this phenomena and the impact climate change is effecting. Also, side note, for a documentary short subject feature, I found that the sound/audio quality was very well done by the sound engineers.

I'd never heard the term 'haulout' before. When this film opens, we see a lone marine biologist in the wide expanse of the Siberian Arctic. We don't know what he's studying because all the land around him appears barren and lifeless. He retreats to his cabin shack for rest and food, and it seems like a futile existence. (Obviously he can't be alone because someone has to be there to film him). Then, all of a sudden, he opens the door to his shack, and he's completely surrounded by a huge population of walruses. And when I say huge, the documentary states that its ninety five thousand, with another six thousand, give or take still in the ocean nearby. A haulout then, is when walrus, along with seals and others of like kind, migrate to land for the purpose of food, rest and birthing. It's an immensely tremendous sight to behold, an aerial view offers the sight of what has to be acres and acres of walruses, compact to such a degree that they're practically sitting on top of and suffocating each other. The pups especially looked vulnerable to getting crushed. And with their razor sharp tusks, it wouldn't be wrong to say that a fair number of them wind up goring each other, either accidentally or on purpose depending on their disposition, as they did appear to be fairly aggressive. All of which is to suggest that the idea of climate change may not be the only factor involved in the deaths of walruses observed when the haulout returned to the open sea. These factors aren't mentioned, but it looked pretty obvious to this viewer.

This film is a contender for a 2023 Oscar in the category of Best Short Documentaries. I was lucky enough to catch this film along with the four other contenders for this year's Academy Award at the Paramount Theater in Middletown, New York. If not for this limited showing, I don't know how else I would have been able to see it. So, Congratulations to the Paramount for making it available to enthusiastic cinema fans like me.