Don't Believe the Hype

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A preview was shown at the European Science Fiction Convention in Kiev in April 2006. Pripyat was a new town built in the shadow of the Chernobyl nuclear power stations to house the workers.It is about the evacuation and fate of the town following the accident at reactor number 4. The actors were all inhabitants of Pripyat at the time. They revisit the ghost town and talk about the events. The Soviet government was reluctant to admit that the meltdown had happened for far too long and many people were exposed to the fallout for much longer than necessary.I visited Pripyat after the convention. It was reminiscent Andrei Tarkovsky's 'The Stakler'.I wish it was available on DVD.

A group of former residents who were evacuated from Pripyat following a 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl plant return 20 years later and recollect their memories. A doctor gives a tour of the clinic he used to work in and explains his feelings when the first casualties were brought from the plant. He also takes us to see his apartment which he abandoned 20 years ago but some of the furniture is still there. The film also features a young couple who met in Pripyat when they were growing up and a former plant director Viktor Bryukhanov giving a rare interview. By following these people through the streets of Pripyat visiting their former homes, a viewer begins to understand how eerie the entire place is and the meaning of the word "radiophobia" becomes clear.