I
Wish They Wouldn’t Build Anymore Chornobyls
By Christina Kotlar
On Wednesday, April 18 the Ukrainian
Film Club of Columbia University hosted the New York and US Premiere
of LA ZONA, (THE UNNAMED ZONE) a documentary feature film about three
children and their families affected by the worst nuclear disaster
in human history at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Filmmaker
Carlos Rodriguez from San Sebastian, Spain was introduced by film
club director Yuri Shevchuk and stayed long after the film’s
conclusion answering many thought-provoking questions.
After twenty-one years, the zone surrounding
Chornobyl is comparable to JRR Tolkein’s description of the land of Morder in THE LORD
OF THE RINGS. Even Reactor Number 4 eerily resembles Mount Doom, rising
above the dangerous and desolate (except for rotating teams of workers)
countryside, its invisible radioactive fingers stretching across an
otherwise stunningly beautiful landscape. These areas are vividly captured
in this film that conveys the story through three young voices – Lida,
Nastia and Andriy and their families – living just beyond “The
Unnamed Zone”, an arbitrarily drawn circumference 30 kilometers
surrounding the power plant. When Chornobyl exploded, it released two
hundred times more radiation than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic
bombs combined. These are the ancestral homes of Ukrainians who cannot
go back there for a thousand years.
The film is structured like a fairytale,
told in the first person by the three children defining their situation
as something unreal that could not possibly be happening in this
day and age. Information and technological detection in the West
announced the disaster to the world over twenty years ago, yet during
the three- day evacuation of over 350,000 people, no one was told
anything and that pattern continues today. Radiation falls and settles
in patches and in spite of constant monitoring, the officials say
everything is fine. But it isn’t
fine.
The official number of deaths remains an unconvincing 54 (47 at the
time of the disaster and nine from thyroid cancer) whereas the environmental
organization Greenpeace estimates 100,000 extra cancer deaths with
8,000 deaths attributed to the disaster. The Ukrainian National Council
on Radiation Protection claims to have documentation for 34,499 deaths.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the number of deaths
closer to be 50,0000 and after years of data analysis no one really
knows for sure what the ramifications actually are or will be. WHO
recommended that children living within a certain distance of the Zone
go abroad for forty days out of the year to recuperate from stresses
on their immune systems. Countries such as Australia, Italy, France,
and Spain invite these children to do the convalescence within their
borders. It is during one of these visits that the filmmakers became
intrigued with the situation.
A vigorous Q&A discussion ensued with questions from the audience
especially regarding health issues. Carlos listened intently and through
his interpreter, Iban Ubarretxena, responded with information he learned
on a daring venture into the contaminated zone with just a camera and
a sound person. They were well aware of and concerned with the dangers
of contamination as they collected visuals then conducted interviews
to construct the story. The father of one of the children worked as
a firefighter near the site and spoke candidly about his concerns for
his children and for his own health. If there were too much radiation
indicated on his person, he would be fired from his job – a job
necessary to support his young and growing family. He and others note
that the guarded sarcophagus is breaking down, with 3 of the 4 walls
already cracked and deemed unsafe. The workers speculate that radiation
is escaping from this decaying structure.
But life goes on and although the
boundaries between reality and legend have been wiped out in this
part of Never-Never land, views on the environment are expressed
purely through the children’s opinions,
drawings, poetry, songs and wishes. The filmmakers do not speak or
understand the Ukrainian language, yet this film speaks so eloquently
about Ukrainian people, their lives and their future as it is intertwined
with consequences that are far more terrible and complex than purely
medical. It pervades every single aspect of life for generations to
come.
Director Carlos Rodriguez began his documentary filmmaking career
at Canal+ SPAIN. After six years, he and producer Asun Lasarte established
their film production company Morgan Creativos specializing in documentaries
and other cinematographic contents for television. Many of their documentaries
achieved international recognition in film festivals around the world
such as San Sebastian International Film Festival, DocsBarcelona, Documenta
Madrid, Seattle and Chicago International Film festivals, Docaviv,
Sydney Opera House among others. A much shorter version of this film
was also screened on Friday, April 20 as part of the Legacy of Chornobyl
session at the 16th International Conference on Health and Environment:
Global Partners for Global Solutions at the United Nations Headquarters
in New York City.
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