Aftershock: Séisme sur le toit du monde

As Episode 1 of "Aftershock - Everest and the Nepal Earthquake" (2022 release from the UK; 3 episodes; total running time 149 minutes) opens, it is "Saturday, 25 April 2015, Mount Everest", as we see several climbers at the Kumba Icefall just before noon, and a devastating avalanche is descending Everest. We then go to "Three Days Earlier, Everest Base Camp", as we are introduced to several of the climbers... At this point we are less than 5 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this documentary mini-series is directed by Olly Lambert ("One Day In Gaza"). Here Lambert looks back to the truly awful events that happened in Nepal. Please note that the documentary is misleadingly titled. Yes, Everest is featured, but only in about one-third of the movie, Another third deals with how people in Nepal's poorly constructed capital Kathmandu deal with the events. And another third deals with how people in the LangTang valley and village deal with the events. But of course "Aftershock - Kathmadu and the Nepal Earthquake" or "Aftershock - The LangTang Valley and the Nepal Earthquake" doesn't have the same ring to it... Along the way, people that survived it all now tell their tale. "We acted out of survival instinct", comments one. The documentary includes both amazing and frankly frightening footage. I don't recall having seen Kathmandu in such vivid detail. And we also get not only the very good, but also the very ugly (cue: the 3 Israelis... what in the world were they thinking?). Last but not least, please do not confuse this documentary with a 2022 documentary from the US simply called "Aftershock".

"Aftershock - Everest and the Nepal Earthquake" recently premiered on Netflix. I binge-watched all 3 episodes last night, and these 2 1/2 hours just flew by. If you are in the mood to see the devastation of a poor country (which also happens to have Mount Everest) caused by a massive earthquake, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Over 9,000 people died in the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Practically all of them nepal people. And this documentary focusses mainly on the rich western people that were in "need" on Mount Everest. And their "need" isn't like that of people in e.g. Kathmandu that were buried alive under piles of concrete and steel. Their "need" was arising mostly from panic and/or despair.

The main issue that I want to raise, is that this documentary has its priorities wrong. It should not be primarily focussed on the stories of the rich western people whom use sherpa's - nepali people that carry all the food and supplies like oxygen - as slaves. No, it should instead be focussed on the real suffering that occured in villages and Kathmandu.

In the current setup, it is like there being a major earthquake in San Francisco and a TV company making a documentary about a couple of rich Russian Oligarchs. Oligarchs that would have been visiting the area of San Francisco with their capitalist boats/ships during the earthquake. And it would be these rich Oligarchs, which would be portrayed in that documentary as being the ones most in need and as the major victims of that San Francisco earthquake... That wouldn't be fair, would it?!

So mainly because of this issue, I for once decided to NOT give a rating. Why?! Because although I was captured by the immensely beautiful videoshots of the Mount Everest landscape, I think that the priorities are wrong. Giving this show a high IMDb rating would not be fair to all the suffering and neglect of where the real pain occured after this earthquake: i.e. The poor nepali people that were buried under the debris in cities and villages. And giving it a low IMDb rating would also not be fair. Because the documentary clearly has some positive things. I therefore hope that you can understand my reasoning for not rating this show/documentary.

The emotions, environment and the magnitude of the damage was well captured in the series. I remember hearing about the earthquake causing damage in Kathmandu but I also wondered what happened to the people climbing that season.

It's great to see that the photographers were capturing the images and people with cameras had their cameras on to capture the raw emotions. Throughout the series, I was engaged with the content produced in the documentary.

It is surprising to see how an entire village was erased in moments. Absolutely disgusted to see Israelis looting a village at such a sensitive time when money was of no value at the time, and to add salt on wound, they are justifying their act. What else could be expected of them. I guess this is their natural survival instinct. I am glad one selfish thought of getting himself rescued which eventually helped everybody.

Interesting and informative documentary regarding the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. Have seen other programs on this subject, however this program surprised me more for the behavior (and coverage of the behavior) of many of the "tourists" specifically the international climbers & hikers caught in the situation. Horrible, selfish (criminal) behavior without apology. While many are rush to help in the face of devastating events this program shows how for some its a race to the bottom in their attempts to achieve and improve, if possible, their own ends (whatever the end might be) without regard for/at the expense of anyone other than themselves. Horrible, but makes for good screaming at the screen...

Like most people, I remember the footage of the earthquake from Nepal in 2015. I remember seeing buildings collapse, fall apart and one or two avalanche videos. It was horrible. When I see this series was released on Netflix I figure I would watch it. Turns out its more then just some normal documentary where a narrator talks and they show you various things you have already seen before.

Instead it's a multi-episode series in which survivors share their stories, along with new footage from what it was like at ground level. Especially up on the various bases of Everest. At times you see footage and your heart races. In other cases you just see a person talking about something and you can see yourself in that situation and afraid.

This is an excellent documentary. You will get viewpoints from tourists to guides to the average citizens. It puts everything into even more perspective about how tragic the event was. And the pace of each episode is very nice. There are no rushed stories, no loud music trying to drum up emotion, just raw footage of people talking about the events and of course raw recorded footage from that day. I will say, while I don't think I could ever afford to travel to another country, nor handle mountain climbing, this documentary made me have zero interest in ever doing it. Seeing how dangerous it is. What happened literally happened in an instant on the mountain itself. People had zero warning or time to do anything but think their lives were about to end.

The ONLY thing annoying was in the last episode when the Israelis guys made excuses that they felt attacked and they were actually "good people". After a place was wiped out, they broke open a locked box and took all the money out. Then when caught people of course got mad. Then later then found a GPS device and didn't tell anyone because they were afraid for their lives. Give me a break guys, you are terrible people.