Special program "Chornobyl: utopia and apocalypse"  

 Чорнобиль. Хліб на розломі

Chornobyl. Breaking Bread

Director: Oleksandr Kosinov

Ukraine, 1986, 10 min.  

This film is dedicated to the participation of military personnel in the liquidation efforts at the Chornobyl power station. The bravery of these individuals is captured not only in scenes at the “frontline” at the station, but also in “behind the scenes” episodes, showing the efforts of those who helped by baking bread and providing sustenance for the liquidators. Numerous parallels to the Second World War (the road to Chornobyl/the frontline road, the liquidators/war heroes) are stressed by the leading song in the film by famous soviet bard, Vladimir Vysotskyi. Bread in the film is not just food, but a symbol which expresses the theme of overripe wheat, referencing the situation when a farmer goes to war, leaving his land. The smiling military bakers, coming from all the different republics of the Soviet Union, realize the idea of a common goal with calm and confidence. Against the background of panic in society, these individuals are shown as the dependable link in the great chain of general mobilization that was carried out in response to the accident.

The director of the film, Oleksandr Kosinov, at the time of shooting was already a famous and honored filmmaker of the USSR - his films had won awards at festivals in Armenia, Finland, Germany and Vietnam.

Зона

Zone

Director: Murat Mamedov

Ukraine, 1988, 15 min.  

Two years after the accident at the Chornobyl station, people visit their old homes in the contaminated zone, but their allocated time for memorial services is brief – only a few hours. In the villages, the visitors meet “self-settlers” – mostly elderly people who illegally returned to live in the “zone” and reportedly feel no worse than their guests. The settlers organize improvised festivities with the optimistic belief that people will return to their homes and the abandoned land will be bountiful once more. The film easily combines the canonic 9th of May demonstration, local memorial traditions and criticism of the “glasnost” era government. Murat Mamedov once more gives voice to elderly women, as in his 1987 film “Early on Sunday”, which won numerous awards. The expressive monologues and cinematic portraits of his subjects are edited and presented utterly without director commentary.

Право на правду

Right for the Truth

Director: Heorhii Shkliarevskyi

Cinematography: Israel Goldshtein

Ukraine, 1988, 10 min.

 Kyiv, 1989. A demonstration dedicated to the anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy is happening at the "Dynamo" stadium - all the seats are filled, the words "Chornobyl, Pripiat, a warning" are visible on the scoreboard.

 People took to the streets in search of truth because years after the tragedy, there was still no comprehension or public awareness of the real dangers of radiation, and a general feeling that no one from the government had been punished for the accident or for carrying on with the 1st of May demonstration held in Kyiv in the first days after the tragedy.

Heorhiy Shkliarevsky (b. 1937) is a Ukrainian documentary film director. From 1968 he worked at Ukrainian News and Documentary Film Studio, where he created more than 30 films. Among his best-known works are "Mi-cro-phone!" (1989), "Shadow of the Sarcophagus" (1989), "Levels of Democracy" (1992), "Hyde Park, Kyiv Style" (1993).

Смертельна хмара Чорнобиля

The Death Cloud of Chernobyl

Director: Artyom Loskutov

Ukraine, 1992, 10 min.

 A film about the impact of low doses of radiation, told through the visit of members of the youth organization “Next Stop” to the abandoned city of Pripiat.

Dozens of hippies from Sweden, France, Japan and other countries arrive at the Chornobyl station after their boycott of a nuclear testing site in Nevada. The foreign youths are greeted by the local elderly self-settlers, who by force of habit continue to sell mushrooms along the road. Covering their bodies in paint, the visitors head to the fourth reactor to enact an anti-nuclear performance.

The film begins with scenes of how tombstones are created, and ends with shots of a cemetery, although the overall narrative tone of the film is not tragic, but educative. “The Death Cloud of Chornobyl”, with its Pink Floyd-esque soundtrack, is also unique among other chornobyl films for expanding the traditional political or eschatological aspects of the tragedy and bringing in a global ecological worldview and conclusion.

Поки ще живемо…

Alive Yet

Director: Heorhii Shkliarevskyi

Ukraine, 1992, 24 min.

5 years after the Chornobyl tragedy, the film screw of “Ukrkinohronika” studio visit scientific and medical institutions located within a 30 kilometer radius from the Chornobyl station.

The authors of the film speak with researchers who study the effects of radiation on live organisms. Photographs that depict the effect of “radioactive ash” are shown to the viewers - plants with anomalous development, the bodies of animals and humans with disturbing birth defects. Interviews with the scientists are mixed with aerial post-apocalyptical footage of silent cities, dark windows of abandoned buildings, deserted military equipment. The only place where life continues in the same rhythm is the church. Bells and songs sound as before, along with the crackle of the geiger counter, drawing attention to that which is invisible to the eye.

The film is shot in 1991, a decisive year in which patriotic exaltation and a desire to part ways with the USSR were the dominant moods. It becomes evident that is impossible to say goodbye to some things from the past.