The Island President

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  • Opened March 28, 2012 
  • 1 hr 41 min
  • PG | Thematic Elements, Some Violent Content and Smoking

  • The handsome, young, crusading president of the Maldives, a paradise composed of 1200 tiny islands strewn like jewels atop the Indian Ocean, is captured in his first year in office in this David and Goliath tale. The film reveals his battle with the climate change that threatens to destroy his nation, with stunning transparency and intimacy. His candid, intelligent, often humorous speeches and asides make for a totally refreshing experience in political activism as he builds a democracy that replaces decades of oppression and corruption that prevailed before his election. But as he pointedly notes: “It won’t be any good to have a democracy if we don’t have a country.” The Indian Ocean is rising, and if carbon emissions continue at their present levels or if they climb, the Maldives will definitely disappear. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Mohamed Nasheed, Aminath Shauna, Mohamed Aslam, Mark Lynas, Ahmed Naseem, Paul Roberts, Ahmed Shaheed, Ahmed Moosa, Mohamed Waheed, Mohamed Ziyad, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, Ibrahim Hussein Zaki, Iruthisham Adam
  • Director: Jon Shenk
  • Genres: Art House/Foreign, Documentary

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Critic Reviews

90
Salon.com
| Andrew O'Hehir

Nasheed has traveled the world describing the Maldives as the Poland of global warming - meaning, of course, Poland in 1939. If his country cannot be saved from rising sea levels, he maintains, then there may be no saving Tokyo or Mumbai or New Orleans or New York. Read full review

80
Boxoffice Magazine
|

A gripping new documentary that's essential viewing for anybody who believes that the impact of global warming is tomorrow's problem. Read full review

80
Total Film
|

Nasheed may be a small fish in a big geopolitical pond, but his enterprise and optimism are a welcome complement to eco doc doom and gloom. Read full review

80
The Guardian
| Peter Bradshaw

Could Nasheed be the political Prospero to save the island – and the planet? Well, now he is out of power, and the Copenhagen summit was a disappointment. Perhaps his advocacy will help to bring the climate change issue back into political fashion. Read full review

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Mohamed Nasheed in "The Island President.''