Endurance

Co-directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit, this documentary interleaves two stories. One is Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition and the sinking of his ship Endurance in the ice in 1915; the other is the thirty-five-day search for the wreck in the Weddell Sea in 2022. The historical strand rests on black-and-white images taken by the expedition's own photographer, colourised here for the first time. The months the crew spent on the ice, and the fact that not one of them died, make it one of the best-known survival stories there is. The present-day strand follows a technical search operation: sonar sweeps, ice conditions, limited time. Joining the two sometimes feels forced; the emotional account of the modern team does not carry the same weight as the Shackleton material. Who it's for: those interested in polar exploration history and underwater archaeology. Who it's not for: viewers who want to stay with one narrative; the film moves constantly between 1915 and 2022.