Program on the Environment

The Island President, is coming to Seattle’s SIFF Theater beginning Friday May 4th!

May 4–17, SIFF Cinema Uptown 

Tickets: $10 | $5 SIFF Members | $9 Youth (20 & under) and Seniors (65+) 
Matinees: $7 | $5 SIFF Members 
SIFF Cinema passes and vouchers are valid at the box office. 

From director Jon Shenk (The Lost Boys of Sudan) comes the story of PresidentMohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. After bringing democracy to the Maldives after thirty years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of themost low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable. 

The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to theCopenhagen Climate Summit, where the film provides a rare glimpse of the political horse-trading that goes on at such a top-level global assembly. Nasheed is unusually candid about revealing his strategies—leveraging the Maldives’ underdog position as a tiny country, harnessing the power of media, and overcoming deadlocks through an appeal to unity with other developing nations. Despite the modest size of his country, Mohamed Nasheed has become one of the leading international voices for urgent action on climate change. 

On February 7, 2012, Nasheed was forced to resign the presidency under the threat of violence in a coup d’etat perpetrated by security forces loyal to the former dictator. Thefuture of the president, and the island, remain unclear.