Shall we stay or shall we go? To leave for a better life or to stay and preserve the unique culture? The question is eternal, the problem is universal. In the case of Takuu Atoll, to stay may not be an option: rising sea level threatens its very existence.
The 2010 documentary was shot during two visits to the atoll, in 2006 and 2008. Back then the population of 400 lived on Nukutoa, the only inhabited island of the atoll. According to Wikipedia, “in 2019 the estimated resident population was 150”.
The scenes of the flood are perhaps the most poignant in the whole film. The houses and the village school are destroyed. At the same time, you see the children happily swimming and even jumping to the ocean from the coconut palms. Takuu ain’t no paradise, but probably the next best thing to it, and about being lost too. Scott Smithers, one of the scientists who visited the atoll in 2008, said that he has no problem living there. For how long though?
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