Similar in spirit to Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s 2013 documentary, “Leviathan” (though less viscerally brutal), “Aquarela” isn’t your typical climate-change warning. Unspooling without voice-over or on-screen descriptions, the movie shows few people and fewer wildlife. Some woebegone pets huddle on a flooded Miami street; egrets strut through a sodden graveyard. Snatches of vaguely heavy-metal music (by the appropriately named Apocalyptica) punctuate the crack and roar of disintegrating glaciers, but the movie, like the elemental forces we continue to exacerbate, never explains itself. Surrender to it, though, and a narrative — of spectacle, conflict and retaliation — will eventually become clear.

Filming at a dazzling 96 frames per second (though most theaters, lacking the equipment to handle this level of high definition, will screen at 48 f.p.s.), Kossakovsky and Ben Bernhard assemble a stunning, occasionally numbing sensory symphony. At the end, though, they take pity on us, signing off with a glistening rainbow over the world’s tallest waterfall. It feels a little bit like hope.

Aquarela

Rated PG. Nature can be scary. In Russian, English and Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes.