Review of The Island President (2012) by Jesse O — 21 Jun 2013

This an incredibly fascinating and, quite frankly, inspiring documentary about President Mohamed Nasheed's battle to bring to the Maldive Islands' struggle with rising sea tides thanks to climate change to the largest amount of people as is humanly possible so he can get the help he needs.

The Maldive Islands' has an average ground level of 5 feet over sea level, making it the planet's lowest country. So Nasheed's struggle really is for the survival of his people and his country if climate change continues the way it is and his journey to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009 in order to get as many countries as possible to diminish carbon emissions so that Maldives can get the help it needs.

What's really interesting about the documentary is everything leading to Nasheed's mission, the Maldive Islands' were ruled over by a dictator for 30 years and it shows you how Nasheed led the charge to introduce democracy.

Perhaps it wasn't just Nasheed on his own, but he was certainly an important figure in it finally forcing Gayoom, the dictator, to allow fair and free elections. I literally had no idea about any of this and it really is fascinating seeing how Nasheed goes from a political prisoner to the President of the country.

Which brings us to President Nasheed. What this man is trying to accomplish, especially when so much of the world completely denies that climate change is real and think it's a conspiracy by scientists, which is idiocy if you ask me, is really inspiring.

President Nasheed is an incredibly likable man and his desperation to do right by his country when he most needs it makes it very easy to relate to him. It really is a David and Goliath story, much like Crude, but Nasheed refuses to give up as he knows it would be the end of his people, perhaps not right at the moment but in the very near future, and that makes him a sympathetic figure and you wish that his words end up reaching everyone and countries end up making a concerted effort to lower carbon emissions, even if you know it is unrealistic to expect that they all will.

I do think that the film sort of peaked before the Copenhagen Summit, the negotiations simply don't have the same power as seeing Nasheed hold the first underwater cabinet meeting, and let me tell you that this is a great idea to bring the spotlight on climate change, and everything else leading up to that.

But it still is really fascinating seeing the negotiations take place and seeing how things, at first, may not have been going Nasheed's way. At the end of the summit, he didn't get exactly everything he wanted but it was a victory for his people and while it wasn't perfect, his mission was a huge accomplishment.

Even if I had some issues with the political stuff at the Summit, this is still a top-notch and completely eye-opening documentary that must be seen.