Chernobyl explodes. Society fractures. Who do you save when everyone's doomed?
1986, Chornobyl disaster. Couples, friends, and a risk-taking journalist are woven into the larger framework of the disaster. Panic follows.
Acting
Shakurov's journalist unravels with devastating restraint.
Production
Period detail that reeks of Soviet decay.
Direction
Belikov weaves personal and political horror masterfully.
Director
Mykhailo Belikov
Sergey Shakurov
Aleksandr Zhuravlyov
Aleksey Serebryakov
Valeriy
Georgiy Drozd
Anatoliy Stepanovich
Marina Mogilevskaya
Lyuba
Oleksiy Horbunov
Shurik
Tatyana Kochemasova
Lyudmila Zhuravlyova
Stanislav Stankevych
Zhuravlyov's father
Anatoli Groshevoy
Ignatiy
Valeriy Sheptekita
Dmitriy Stepanovich
Vladimir Alekseyenko
Osip Lukich
Olga Kuznetsova
Lyudmila's friend
Leonid Yanovskyi
deputy
Aleksey Konsovskiy
fast old man
Serhiy Havryliuk
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made just three years after the disaster, this was the first Soviet dramatic feature to address Chernobyl directly, shot while contamination zones were still expanding.
Belikov had to fight censors who wanted the radiation portrayed as 'manageable'—the Ministry of Culture initially demanded a happier ending where families reunite.
SU
