Chernobyl: The Invisible Thief

Bernard Debord’s Sun and Death, a recent French documentary on victims of the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl, was scathing in its treatment of the Soviet government’s lies and cover-ups. There’s less finger-pointing and more personal sadness in this 2007 German documentary by Christoph Boekel: his wife, whom he met when she served as his Russian interpreter on another film project, died from exposure to Chernobyl radiation. The most memorable interviews here are with a talented painter who worked on the mop-up team after the disaster (and has also since died) and a former science editor at Pravda who’s followed the story for two decades. In German with subtitles. 59 min. (JR)

This entry was posted in Featured Texts. Bookmark the permalink.