‘Endurance’: London Review

Dirs: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Natalie Hewit. UK/US/Antarctica/Iceland/Denmark/South Africa. 2024. 103mins

The stories of two Antarctic expeditions, separated by over a century, are woven together in this gripping documentary from Free Solo and The Rescue directing team Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, together with Natalie Hewitt (Antarctica: Ice Station Rescue). Many viewers will know the eventual outcomes of both Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914 attempt to traverse Antarctica, during which his ship became icebound and eventually sank, and the 2022 ‘Endurance22’ mission to locate the wreck of Shackleton’s ship at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. Yet the picture’s taut editing and deft storytelling make for an unexpectedly tense viewing experience.

Fascinating blend of science and adventure

Endurance premieres at the BFI London Film Festival and will be released in the UK on October 14 by Dogwoof. In the US, it will stream on Disney+ later this year. The tale of Shackleton’s incredible achievement – he kept all 27 of his crew members alive for over a year as they camped on the ice then set out by lifeboat for safety – is a departure for husband and wife directing team Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who won an Oscar for Free Solo and made their fiction directing debut last year with Nyad. While thematically it fits neatly into the pair’s CV, tales of human resilience in the face of the most extreme conditions being a recurring focus of their work, this is the first time that they have tackled a historical event in a documentary format.

One of the reasons that Shackleton’s ill-fated journey captured the public’s imagination as effectively as it did was that so much of it was documented by Australian photographer and filmmaker Frank Hurley, who was on the expedition. The material that Hurley shot was released as a silent film titled South in 1919; this was preserved and restored by the BFI, and re-released in 2019 with a new score. Much of Hurley’s footage is included in Endurance but here it has been digitally colourised for the first time, to haunting effect. Other resources include the diaries and recordings of the men: AI technology has been used to deliver the words in the men’s own voices. The film also uses dramatic reconstructions, some newly created for the production and others derived from previous films.

Compared to the wealth and atmosphere of the archive footage, the material from the 2022 wreck recovery expedition, shot on board the South African icebreaking ship Agulhas II which was kitted out with cutting-edge technology and equipment, can feel a little sterile. The filmmakers counter this, and the fact that much of the mission involves a team scrutinising grainy footage of the sea bed on a bank of screens, by drawing on some of the key characters of the mission.

Mensun Bound, for example, is a legend in the field of maritime archeology. With wild hair and boundless enthusiasm, he confides that he packed a travel bust of Shackleton in his luggage. Expedition subsea manager Nico Vincent talks movingly about the trip as a way to deal with his recent bereavement following the loss of his wife to cancer. Also on the ship, the broadcaster and historian Dan Snow breaks down the highly technical specifics of the mission into coherent and easily accessible soundbites.

Given the state-of-the-art equipment on board the Agulhas II, it’s hard to argue that the expedition members have as much at stake as Shackleton’s team did on their doughty-but-fragile wooden ship. But as the wreck proves elusive and the Endurance22 mission is extended, the risk of history repeating itself with an icebound ship is all too real, bringing a genuine tension to this fascinating blend of science and adventure.