The Weather War is a documentary/art film about man’s attempts to control the weather and harness it for his own purposes. In a blend of land art performance and road movie, artist duo Bigert & Bergström travel to the US tornado belt with their special machine-sculpture, the Tornado Diverter. The goal: To stop a tornado. Along the way, we see historical examples of how the science of meteorology developed in symbiosis with military goals and how these visions evolved into modern ideas of geo-engineering. Controversial ideas with socio-political consequences, spotlighting the big question of who is really entitled to modified weather.
In a larger perspective, the film features the problems faced worldwide due to global climate change. How do we behave to meet those challenges? Do we adapt? Or do we wage war against increasingly aggressive weather phenomena? Bangladesh is building protective walls against coming floods. China shoots rockets into threatening clouds. And in Italy, anti-hail cannons are fired to protect the year’s wine harvest.
This is the final film in the trilogy that Bigert & Bergström have been working with since 2002, dealing with the human obsession with control. The first film, Last Supper from 2005, is about the last meal offered to death row inmates before their execution. In 2008 came Life Extended, a film on the contemporary dream of a longer, or even eternal, life.
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