Inside Chernobyl

Inside Chernobyl

2012, Environment  -   31 Comments
6.17
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Ratings: 6.17/10 from 141 users.

A film based on current conditions in Chernobyl and Pripyat, where the Soviet Government tried to cover up a catastrophic nuclear accident - something the world had never seen before.

Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had exploded releasing lethal amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. In the control room, Leonid Toptunov, a young but senior technician, begun an experiment which led to an extremely unstable reactor configuration.

To this day many of the switches in the control room remain untouched, still in the same position they were the morning of the accident.

As the reactor core was exposed, a plume of highly radioactive smoke continued to rise into the skies. Chernobyl, located 82 miles North of the Ukrainian's capital city Kiev, was once a small town located in the far west of the Soviet Union.

Nuclear fallout from the explosion was initially spread hundreds of miles carried by the wind and clouds. Neighboring towns and cities were heavily contaminated. However nearly 1000 miles from Chernobyl, Sweden was the first country to detect that something disastrous had happened.

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Bartul
Bartul
6 years ago

Everybody mentions the music. But if you had ever come across Brian Eno and his Music for airports you would have realised how whole notes and long music sentences emphasise large empty spaces. This is not a music 'to like' but to underline the main impression. So if it was boring, unbearable or if it was making your mind numb, it did its job right.
I'm sure the people who live in that desolation where everything reminds you of a life long gone would agree that's how they feel.

Lena and Natalie
Lena and Natalie
7 years ago

We found that the creator of the film did not effectively communicate the message of the Chernobyl disaster. There was not enough information, with too many establishing shots of the disaster sight, and no facts present for a very long time. Also the translator for the resettled man did not seem to be able to translate very well. And why didn't they wear masks isn't that unsafe???? However I do think that the filmmaker got the intended reaction from the audience, as the music and the shots of children with birth defects evokes sympathy and sorrow. I would recommend this documentary as a starting point of learning about Chernobyl, however I do think that there are probably better documentaries that exist on this topic that provide more information.

Carl
Carl
7 years ago

This is just a tourist film . Not a documentary with any insight. Just because you visited Chernobyl doesn't mean that you are entitled to call your holiday video a documentary. Haunting background music is frankly no replacement for a proper narrative.

Markmatthews
Markmatthews
10 years ago

You guys are being a bit harsh. The filmmaker doesn't claim to be a professional at all. He clearly states he is an amateur and did this all on his own. IMO, he did a great job with the limited tools he had at his disposal.

bumpercrop
bumpercrop
10 years ago

Oddly beautiful, quietly powerful, recent autumnal, observation of nuclear facilities in Chernobyl, Ukraine, evacuated since 1986, still highly radioactive. Basic history provided accompanied by film archives. An interview with a survivor is sensitively conducted. Stunning and disturbing photographs of Chernobyl's genetic
human deformities resulting from radiation exposure are shown. The Chernobyl climate disaster was caused by the error of one person. 431 global reactors now supply 13% of our world's electricity. We have no known method of permanent containment of nuclear waste. Why do we continue to pay a private industry for destroying our global environment, i.e. nature? These filmmakers risked their lives to bring vital information to humans who want our species to survive. Fukishima continues to smoke, suppression of Chernobyl and now suppression of Fukishima.

Imightberiding
Imightberiding
11 years ago

Grrr! I was forced to give up on this one. It's unfortunate because I really did want to watch it. I had to turn the volume up high enough to hear the whispering narrator but was rewarded only with the horrible background or haunting atmospheric "music" drowning everything out.

Hollis Evon Ramsey
Hollis Evon Ramsey
11 years ago

simply documentation, like a Rick Steves travelogue without the explanations. no questions asked or answered. boring as hell. the "music" would drive elevator riders crazier than normal elevator music does.

darknight32
darknight32
11 years ago

Id agree this one was nothing amazing.I usually write pretty long reviews of films,docs and such but this one, not that much to say.There is an eerie beauty in these ruins and the images he shows are really cool.But i think there could have been more dialog,background,updates,interviews with different people involved.Government people,citizens from different areas and so forth.I think this was a pretty light doc,not very hard hitting or informative.The doc isn't horrible in anyway, its just what id again call a light doc.One for people with a passing interest in this part of history,want to check out some images but aren't looking for a deep,technical,2 hr movie. Me,I'd prefer the 2hr deep,technical movie,but there's plenty of those out there and on this site on a vast amount of topics.

oQ
oQ
11 years ago

Despite the tragedy that happened to all those people and to the earth, Tchernobyl now looks like a photographer playground.
Very well made documentary...(i could have skipped a few of the long meter testing).
1i

Bozman419
Bozman419
11 years ago

Sure would be a good documentary if someone could find out more about the 23 firefighters that prevented the fires from causing a bigger explosion, and the hard ships they faced in the days following their sacrafice. Found a small bit of info, but i suppose everyone involved and who would have heard their accounts before they died would also have died.

Black N Bianco
Black N Bianco
11 years ago

Scary stuff.

bringmeredwine
bringmeredwine
11 years ago

Another thing, of course the Soviet Union and the rest of the world was lied to about the gravity of the situation; do you remember years ago, when the President of the Soviet Union was trotted out once in a while in front of the tv cameras, and he didn't say a word and appeared to be DEAD? I wish I could remember his name! (Breshnikov or something like that?)

bringmeredwine
bringmeredwine
11 years ago

This was nothing to write home about, just footage of how Chernobyl looked as of last year, like a set from "Life After People".
The filmaker walks around holding a mini radiation metre up to everything to get a reading, that's pretty much all that was talked about.
You can tell that there has been much vandalism and theft throughout the buildings.
This didn't surprise me because I once watched a doc about how the locals (yes, locals) are paid for giving illegal tours of the site. They also go hunting there for their food. Apparently, the eco system was getting back to normal. (they should have had Buddy with his metre along).
The filmaker only interviewed one older man named Ivan, who had returned to live on his farm. I could barely make out what the translator was saying.
There are some disturbing photos of deformaties from radiation contamination at the very beginning.
I'm gonna watch The Battle of Chernobyl now, just for fun.

Giacomo della Svezia
Giacomo della Svezia
11 years ago

A minor error in the introduction: Chernobyl is not located in
the far east of the former Soviet Union, it lies northwest of Kiev, not
far from the border between Ukraine and Belarussia, which were the more western states of the USSR.

The Battle of Chernobyl is a much better and more informative documentary. This one is a nice impression of what it looks like now. The scenery is going to change now that they will build a new sarcophagus over the old and decaying one.

I found the website of Elena Filatova fascinating (kiddofspeed dotcom). It also gives a good explanation of radiation and how relative - but real - its dangers are. There are accusations that her story is a hoax, however I find those improbable.

Trevis Robotie
Trevis Robotie
11 years ago

the guide must be polluted by all means,he doesn't seem to care about the risks of contamination......I don't even wanna be anywhere close to him or this place.......great pity for the ppl who remain behind

Pysmythe
Pysmythe
11 years ago

The composer as the inane mental tangents of an opium addicted tropical fish, warm, watery, and nearly motionless. Can this musical macaque possibly score anything shorter than whole notes? A big distraction, and almost totally inappropriate for the content...