THAW is my documentary about a real climate experiment on Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain.
A group of people try to slow the melting of a glacier by covering part of the ice with a large wool blanket.
The idea is simple. Wool insulates, and ice melts more slowly when it's protected from the heat. Doing it for real, on a glacier, in changing weather and difficult terrain, is physically hard, logistically complicated and full of uncertainty.
I started filming in April, before I understood how hard it would be for me personally.
A filmmaker out of his depth
I'm not a mountaineer. I'm a filmmaker.
From the outside the work looked manageable. Long days, heavy lifting, tough conditions, but nothing impossible. On the mountain, the difference was obvious. The experienced team moved calmly and efficiently through terrain that pushed me to my limits.
Carrying camera gear while skiing, climbing and crossing a glacier stripped filmmaking down to the basics. There were moments when my body simply refused. Moments when exhaustion took over and all I could think about was the next step.
What felt overwhelming to me was routine for the people I was filming. That difference became an important part of the story. The mountain doesn't care how experienced you are. It only responds to effort.
Three trips, three seasons, an uncertain outcome
The project stretched over three trips to Kebnekaise. Winter, with snow and snowmobiles. Summer, with heat and long walks in. And an autumn return to see what was left after months of melting.
There was never a guarantee that the blanket would make a measurable difference. No script, no promise of results. The work still had to be done, and that uncertainty is at the heart of the film.
This isn't a story about a perfect solution to climate change. It's a story about effort: committing to an idea and seeing it through, even when the result is unclear and the impact feels small.
Climate change you can see
Climate change is usually discussed in numbers, graphs and distant projections. On the glacier, it's physical. You see it in the ice, in the melt patterns, and in how small the people look against the landscape. By filming the experiment as it happened, instead of explaining it afterwards, the film stays close to what it was actually like.
The project was led by Swedish adventurer Oskar Kihlborg, whose experience in extreme environments made it possible to try something this demanding at all. Working next to people with that level of skill showed me how much effort real action takes, and how invisible that effort is from a distance.
No guarantees
This is how I think about documentaries in general. The stories that matter to me aren't built on clean narratives or guaranteed success. They are about people who take responsibility for an idea and carry it through, despite the uncertainty.
THAW is No. 10 in 100 Documentaries, my project of making 100 films about people who try to make the world better in their own way. Read more on the film's own page: THAW.
Every film changes me in some way. This one did it by constantly reminding me of my own limits, and by showing how much persistence is behind even the smallest visible result.
Watch the film
THAW premiered on 27 January 2026.
Change doesn't always come from certainty or perfect solutions. Sometimes it starts with people who act even when the outcome is unclear.