Laki Haze

The initial concept for the film was motivated by the threat of an American nuclear strike against North Korea in 2017 and the realisation that the blast effects of a nuclear bomb though devastating, would be outweighed by the potentially catastrophic damage to the Earth’s atmosphere. The film soundtrack begins with contemporary accounts of the Lakakigar volcanic eruption in 1783 that record the dramatic climatic effects both in Iceland and across the rest of Europe. The 1780s seemed like a pertinent emblematic moment to start the film because it marks the start of the industrial revolution and the Anthropocene that is the underlying cause of the current crisis of climate change. The film extends this ecological theme into the present day political crisis in Europe and America: Brexit, Trump, the rise of right-wing nationalism and denial of imminent global climate change.