4 Elements (2006)

Directed by: Jiska Rickels | 89 minutes | documentary

The Dutch documentary ‘4 Elements’ consists of four chapters, each of which deals with one of the four primal elements. Each chapter is preceded by a recited text, in the language of the country where the images were shot. These texts seem to have come straight from an Old European saga and are as powerful as they are meaningless. Apart from these texts and a quote from Empedocles with which the film opens, we have to make do with images. Then of course you need a director with a great visual talent. Director Jiska Rickels has a good eye for details and presents unusual perspectives and (sometimes) beautiful images. Yet that is not enough in the first two parts of this film.

The Russian firefighters and the American fishermen work in environments that will not be very special to most viewers. Both forest fires and industrial fishing are regularly seen on television or in documentaries. Despite the cinematic finds and the moving images of male camaraderie, these parts do not always captivate.

How different it is in the next two chapters. Then we end up in worlds of which we hardly know anything. For the third chapter we descend deep into the earth. The curious underground means of transport, the light signals, valves that open out of nowhere, the noise, the coal and the dust, it is all equally special and it is all equally beautifully filmed.

This is even more true for the last part, in which we follow the training of cosmonauts. Here we end up in an almost surreal environment. Especially the underwater exercises and the test in a cabin, where a Russian employee speaks to the cosmonauts in his incomprehensible language via a microphone, are really beautiful. Here too, the lack of explanatory texts appears to be a strong choice.

Ultimately, it is a pity that Rickels has opted for such a broad approach. The elements, their interactions, man, his companionship and his struggle against the elements, all these motives provide sufficient coherence, but this is at the expense of quality. Had Rickels limited himself to the last two chapters and expanded them a bit, this would have been a beauty of a documentary. Now he is still reasonably successful, but with a few dips.