Victor Kossakovsky’s breathtaking, globe-spanning cine-essay is a disquieting meditation on architecture and how it connects with the impermanence of human existence. Why do we live in a world whose buildings we now construct and occupy are only intended for a short lifespan, when older generations designed structures that lasted centuries, even millennia? It’s a question asked of architect Michele De Lucchi as he creates an enduring installation in his garden, while Kossakovsky travels the world capturing rigorously composed images, from the ancient temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon and vast open mining operations to a Turkish city in the aftermath of an Earthquake and Ukrainian tower blocks following a Russian air raid. Juxtaposing these images, Kossakovsky poetically reflects on the rise and fall of civilisations.

A ravishingly cinematic project born of a vital environmental urgency, the film asks us to consider how a better relationship with nature might allow humanity – so often prone to folly – to build better and, ultimately, survive.

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