Iceland’s Glaciers Are Vanishing. A New Documentary Captures What We’re Losing.

Sara Dosa first fell for Iceland the way many do: through its music. Growing up in Northern California, she was captivated by Björk, Sigur Rós, and Múm. Then she saw photos of the island’s otherworldly terrain. “I was mesmerized,” she says. That fascination led her to make films about the country—first about a woman who speaks with elves, and now about something far more fragile: its glaciers.

Her latest documentary, “Time and Water,” premiered at Sundance in January 2026. It centers on the grandparents of Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason, Hulda and Árn, and the glacier that shaped their lives. The couple began trekking across ice together in the 1950s, long before it was common for women to join such expeditions. That same glacier became the backdrop for their honeymoon, their adventures, and eventually, their goodbyes.

As Hulda and Árn aged, the ice shrank. Dosa weaves together archival family footage with sweeping shots of retreating glaciers, capturing what it means to lose something you love—both a person and a place. “Andri always said Iceland is encoded in an invisible layer of stories,” Dosa explains. The film treats the glacier as a living character, one that breathes, shifts, and eventually fades.

Shooting in Iceland meant battling gale-force winds and weather that could flip from sun to sleet in minutes. Dosa’s crew relied heavily on local experts. “Our Icelandic team was playful and wise,” she says. “When a storm hit, we’d panic. They’d say, ‘Wait five minutes.’ And suddenly the sky would open up and light the glacier perfectly.”

One memorable scene involved the crew sinking into mud at Jökulsárlón while trying to steady a tripod in the wind. “We were all smiling,” Dosa recalls. “It’s an intimacy with the land. Sometimes you get swallowed by the earth itself.”

“Time and Water” is a love letter to ice, to a couple, and to the stories that bind people to place. As one glacier disappears, the film asks: What do we carry forward when the ice is gone?