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Swiss filmmaker Ian Purnell makes a curious debut, premiering in the main competition at the CPH: DOX documentary festival.
Swiss director Ian Purnell‘s documentary “Arctic Link” is a confounding experience to sit through. Ostensibly a film about the internet coming to a remote island off Alaska decades after it has taken over the rest of the world, it spends too much time focusing on the manufacturing and transport of fibre optic cables, and too little on the people of the island. Some of the film, meanwhile, is spent aboard the vessel slowly drifting on the ocean on its way to deliver said cables. Though it’s well-shot — with long, uninterrupted, drone-like shots of nature — it lacks a coherent narrative and fails to make a point about the effects of technology on the modern world.
Purnell starts the investigation by asking what the internet would look like if it was a creature. The answers, from a multitude of people of different ages and experiences, range from “scary” to “snake” to “endless void.” There’s a beguiling dissonance between the hushed voiceover and the images of ships carrying cables and dropping them in the ocean for the internet to reach the island. From there, Purnell brings in some of the island’s inhabitants to talk about how the internet might change their lives.
However, Purnell cannot bring these interviews to life. We first hear voices over shots of nature, before people appear. There’s no connection between the two states, and clearly Purnell is trying to avoid the conventional documentary method of talking heads droning on. But his alternative approach doesn’t make these confessions pop, while nothing the interviewees say is intriguing: mostly generalizations about faster connection to family and friends living far away, and parents hoping the internet will help educate their children while also being wary of the intrusion.
Throughout the proceedings there’s a strangely pessimistic view of the internet. That might be appropriate for our anxiety-ridden times, but it does not make for an enjoyable watch. Purnell’s thesis or point of view for his film is unclear. Usually, if a documentary asks all the right questions, then the audience can make their own assumptions about its subject. However, in 2026, why explore the effects of technology on the modern world in this way? As there’s no going back from the internet dominating our lives, “Arctic Link” seems to arrive at least three decades too late. Of course there are stories to be told about the effects of technology, but the one Purnell chooses to tell — or avoid telling — is not all that interesting.
An abundance of footage of cables being made and loaded on the ships is complemented by shots of water, nature and stock imagery. It’s like watching paint dry or, to describe an actual shot in the film, a slow trickle of creamy oil. On the soundtrack, atmospheric music adds to the doom and gloom of the narrative. “Arctic Link” briefly comes to life when Purnell takes the camera onto the ship itself. There, the Filipino crew is shown trying to while away the long hours aboard the vessel — whether with a game of cards, a call with family far away at home, or a live band formed to bring some entertainment.
If only Purnell had thought of a way to entertain the audience too. Ultimately, “Arctic Link” remains as adrift as the vessel it so patiently observes. Feeling much more than its 84 minutes, the film never quite finds a rhythm or a reason to justify its existence, while even its beautifully shot interludes amount to only a few arresting frames scattered across an otherwise monotonous canvas. What could have been a compelling meditation on isolation, technology and connection instead dissipates into a series of inert images and half-formed ideas, leaving the audience stranded in the same limbo as the film itself.
English (US) ·