North Sea – Nature Untamed

Dutchman Peter van Rodjinen has been fascinated by the North Sea ever since he was a young child, and so over the years has honed his diving skills and travelled the length and breadth of this waterway exploring it's wildlife and assessing the changes caused by humans and by environmental change over decades. From the tip of Shetland to the reclaimed areas of Zeeland in the Netherlands, he has accumulated an impressive and quite charming collection of underwater photography that shows the diverse wilderness and the myriad of creatures - great and small - who call it their home. This film isn't presented as a chronology, more as a sort of themed observation of life beneath the waves and it's compendium approach to storytelling works well enough - often inspired by some profundities from the legendary Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Unlike as with many films like this, though, this one doesn't have an overtly political position to take. It is clearly aware of the effects of mankind's interventions whether they be trawling for fish or building great big wind turbines, but it doesn't drill down into the science or economics of those industries; it merely suggests that some are not as bad as others and that a balance must be struck between what humanity needs and what nature can provide. If we don't acknowledge and respect that balance, then nobody will end up with anything. I liked his narration. It's not riddled with acronyms and gloom-laden prognostications; instead it has something more approachable and friendly to it. He makes his points, and they are effective, but he adopts a little more of the "Janet and John" approach to his storytelling and lets the images do the heavy lifting for him. This shows us nature at it's most beautiful and at it's angriest and hungriest and though some of it does come across as something you might have seen in school rather than a serious scientific study, it is still an enjoyably informative watch that offers some grounds for optimism - even...