Sara Dosa Talks Finding Meaning in Nature in New Documentary Time and Water

“The future we were warned about is no longer distant, it is here.” This is the message that Oscar-nominated director Sara Dosa shares in her newest documentary Time and Water. Through archival material and the writings of Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason, Dosa puts together an expansive story focused on generational memory and humanity’s relationship with nature. Dosa was previously nominated for a BAFTA and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film for directing Fire and Love. 

Centered on Magnason’s own family ties, Time and Water captures the vast existence of Icelandic glaciers and the tremendous loss felt by the author as he witnesses the disappearance of these titans, in addition to the passing of his grandparents. The audience is transported through the passing of time and experiences the indelible impression humans make on the world and people around them.  

The creation of the film was an inherently collaborative process, built on the original novel “On Time and Water” by Magnason. 

“We really started to get into the themes of the film, of his book, of his archives, to figure out how we could work with his book in a way where the film would be kind of like a cinematic sibling, but not an adaptation,” Dosa says. 

Dosa describes the process to create the film as a “team sport,” which involved constant communication with Magnason to put together the script that best captured his voice. The resulting dialogue is an intimate retrospection into Icelandic history and its impacts on modern family ties and environmental issues. 

Yet, it’s no surprise that Dosa was charmed by Magnason’s story. 

“I’m always drawn to stories about how humans are finding meaning in nature and relationships with nature — specifically stories that show life force or sentience of our natural world,” Dosa says.

Time and Water is interested in more than just the relationship between humans and nature, however, it is invested in the love that emerges from that relationship and within those that explore it during their lives. The film showcases that when one cares for their environment, those emotions are inseparable from caring for one another.

“I deeply love our natural world. I deeply love humans, despite our flaws, which are many. But I think that that’s something that just guides me personally… It’s not something I ever really intentionally thought, I’m going to set out to make love stories.”

Throughout many of her masterworks, Dosa has centered love in her documentaries, whether intentionally or not. Dosa’s directorial touch provides a sense of warmth and hope, even when wrestling with deeply profound subject matters.

“There is something radical about love, especially in a time that is so polarizing,” Dosa says. “Wherever we can center love and joy amid the doom and the apocalyptic stories abound, I think it could inspire hope…I think it can give a sense of a light in the dark to keep people working toward the change that we so badly need.” 

Magnason’s story hit close to home for Dosa, who was raised in an extremely close family. In the film credits, Dosa extends a special thanks to her grandparents and great grandparents, whom she has lost through the years. This fear and dread of losing the people that shaped her is felt throughout the film in an achingly nostalgic way.

“When I lost them, something broke in me, I didn’t know how to make sense of the world anymore. To think that the people who made me could die, that the force of creation can go away — it was such a strange paradigmatic shift that I still really wrestle with,” Dosa says. “That question around life and death is something that I’m always trying to work out, [and] even finds its way into my filmmaking. That’s something that really spoke to me in Andri’s writing. How do we say goodbye?”

Time and Water is a stark wake-up call, not only to protect the planet we call home, but to cherish our time with loved ones. The future is now, and Dosa captures the course we took to get here. The question that defines the film is one that extends beyond generational knowledge: how do you say goodbye to what you never thought you could lose? 

Time and Water premiered January 27, 2026 at the Sundance Film Festival. It also screened March 12 at the SXSW Film & TV Festival.