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The Battle of Chernobyl
(94 minutes) France/Russia/Ukraine
Director: Thomas Johnson
Description:
On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat exploded and began spewing radioactive smoke and gas. Firemen discovered that no amount of water could extinguish the blaze. More than 40,000 residents in the immediate area were exposed to fallout a hundred times greater than that from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. But the most serious nuclear accident in history had only begun. Based on top-secret government documents that came to light only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1999, The Battle of Chernobyl reveals a systematic cover-up of the true scope of the disaster, including the possibility of a secondary explosion of the still-smoldering magma, whose radioactive clouds would have rendered Europe uninhabitable. The government effort to prevent such a catastrophe lasted for more than seven months and sacrificed the lives of thousands of soldiers, miners and other workers.
The Battle of Chernobyl dramatically chronicles the series of harrowing efforts to stop the nuclear chain reaction and prevent a second explosion, to "liquidate" the radioactivity, and to seal off the ruined reactor under a mammoth "sarcophagus." The consequences of this catastrophe continue today, with thousands of disabled survivors suffering from the "Chernobyl syndrome" of radiation-related illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor. As this remarkable film makes clear, The Battle of Chernobyl is far from over.
Biography:
Thomas Johnson is an acclaimed director and producer working for Paris-based Play Film. Founded in 1995, Play Film is a production company working in documentary, institutional and fiction films. After five years dedicated to the distribution of a catalog comprising three hundred hours of films by writer/directors, Play Film initially chose to specialize in documentary film production. Since 2005, Play Film has expanded its production to include short and feature-length fiction films, as well as developing an institutional sector concerned with promoting the cultural, natural, nonmaterial and human heritage of public and private organisms.
Contact Information:
Director: Thomas Johnson, thomas.johnson@mwayfilms.com
Distribution: M Way Films |
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©2007 United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) |
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