Safety123 is a poetic film about a very un-poetic subject. Filmed in striking wide shots, teams of stoic safety experts assess the risks of living beneath mountains prone to sudden collapse. Swiss engineers drop artificial boulders down steep hills, build barriers to slow water, rocks, and snow, and endlessly prepare for the worst. What could go wrong next? How much of our future can be anticipated, and controlled? Directors Julia Gutweniger and Florian Kofler make us acutely aware of the power of the natural world, and the scientists, technicians, and disaster relief agencies behind the invisible structures that protect us from nature’s whims. -PC

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