“Fortune favours the bold.” Pliny the Younger famously ascribed this quote to his uncle, Pliny the Elder, as the latter encouraged an expedition to investigate the explosion of Mount Vesuvius. The Elder, however, was not rewarded by the Roman goddess for his bravery; he died while attempting to rescue a friend. The Younger’s writings on the explosion, though, were so detailed that they are still referenced by modern scientists, thereby attesting that fortune can reward some of the bold—at least for a while.
Sara Dosa’s documentary profiles two such bold souls: volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, whose work on and footage of volcanoes—often captured at a truly startling, and dangerous, proximity—propelled; and that prediction ultimately came true, as the Kraffts perished together while documenting an explosion at Mount Unzen in Japan in 1991. By beginning her film at the end of her subjects’ lives, Dosa creates a portrait of two individuals whose intertwined scientific and personal journeys became the stuff of myth.
