- Release year: 2024
- Director: Yi-shan Lo.
- Producers: Yung-Shuang Chen, Tze-lan Cho, and Yi-Shan Lo.
- Cinematography by: Yi-Shan Lo and Wei-Long Tsai.
Synopsis: a woman tries to understand and come to terms with the death of her friend by going back to the place of her passing.
Shotgun Commentary: heartbreaking essay on loss, trauma, and mourning.
Review
After the Snowmelt (original title: Xue shui xiao rong de ji jie) is a very slow-paced documentary that follows the filmmaker as she ventures into the mountain where her friend died in order to better understand her passing and deal with her unresolved feelings about it. A pretty hard subject that is explored in the most raw and realistic way possible.
Boundaries and healing
The film follows Yi-Shan, protagonist and director of the documentary, as she ventures into the mountains in Nepal to retrace the steps of her friends Chun and Yueh. They went on a trip only to end up stuck in a cave, where Chun died before they could rescue them, leaving Yueh as the sole survivor. Yueh wants nothing to do with her project. Furthermore, he asks her to leave it alone so he can just try to move on from the traumatic event, but Yi-Shan needs to keep digging to find her own path through grief and into acceptance.
This conflict takes place over about a third of the film, and it is arguably one of the most interesting moments in it. Where is the line between respecting the survivor’s wishes and finding your own closure? The three people most involved in the story are really close, making it even harder to find that line and to decide whether your closure is worth the potential damage to the person who had to go through that trauma the first time around.
Regardless of what this critic and yourself might think, the filmmaker makes the decision to retrace their steps without him, finding the closest thing to a middle ground possible considering the situation. The result is a combination of nature-exploration documentary with interviews on the side.
The hiccups
As she retraces the trips that led to tragedy, she interviews all those who met the couple on their way to the cave, a great addition to the movie that doesn’t quite always work as it should. While most interviews as fascinating both as ways to get to know a different culture and as fillers for the story of Chun and Yueh, some bits have no subtitles, leaving international audiences in the dark as to what is going on. A minor detail that pushes you away from the story nonetheless.
Another issue with the final result of this project, and this one is actually a bit of a make-or-break problem, is the pacing. This is definitely not a film you want to screen to your audiences after lunch. It is really paused and full of almost static shots with a quiet atmosphere. The stagnant moments reign over most of the footage, providing a sense of peace or foreboding, depending on the moment of the footage when they take place.
A beautiful challenge
Now there is nothing wrong with a slow pace, but it can be pretty hard for audiences, especially nowadays, when people are so used to overstimulation that focusing on just the one simply thing becomes an almost impossible task.
If you have some energy and good focusing abilities, though, this will prove to be one of the most enthralling documentaries you can watch. The combination of nature, statements, letters, and videos of the filmmaker’s experience is a unique way to show the process of grief, one completely raw and unfiltered that is quite uncommon to witness even in real life.
All in all, After the Snowmelt can be a hard watch, both due to the subject and to the pace. However, if you are alright with those, it is a fascinating documentary that you should check out, especially if you like nature and exploring the subject of life and death.
Advice to take from this movie:
- The is no right or wrong way to grief. It is a personal process and nobody has the right to judge you for it.
- Nature is often a great conduit for reflecting and healing.
- Sometimes there are no answers, and being OK with that is the best you can aspire to.
What’s your take? Have you watched After the Snowmelt? Don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀