The powerful, award-winning 1999 documentary film Pripyat, shot in stark black & white, takes a sobering look at life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone 12 years after the 1986 nuclear disaster. Produced and directed by Austrian filmmaker Nicklaus Geyrhalter, the 100-minute film engulfs the viewer with scenes of deserted streets, empty buildings, and overgrown fields, as well as interviews with Chernobyl Nuclear Plant workers and samosels, elderly residents of the "Zone."

Pripyat and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

The film's name comes from the city Pripyat, the former home of Chernobyl Plant workers. But the film is not just about Pripyat - it is about the entire 30 kilometer Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This contaminated area is protected by numerous checkpoints and barbed wire fences meant to keep people out of the Zone.However, an elderly resident of the Zone observes that the barbed wire does not stop radiation from leaving the Zone. He wonders where the extent of the contamination really stops.

Life in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Yes, several hundred elderly people called samosels (self-settlers or autonomous returnees) have returned to their homes within the Zone after being evacuated after the accident. They are hardy soles who survive on their own, with little to no help from the government. A doctor reveals that authorities no longer provide people with information regarding radiological measurements from the surrounding environment.

An elderly woman comments, "You have to live and you have to work, But how are we supposed to live?" Somehow, these people have found a way. They returned to their homes many years ago and grow their own produce, raise pigs for meat, hunt for wild berries and mushrooms and fish in the local river. Having survived in the Zone for up to 12 years now, these people generally disregard the dangers of radiation. They feel if it was a major health hazard they would no longer be alive.

Working at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant

Chernobyl Plant engineer Nikolai Nikolayevich Suvoro is responsible for safety at Reactor 3 (the reactor was still operational when this film was made). He provides a tour of the reactor and quietly mentions his job does not pay enough to live on. The work is enjoyable to him, but it is not his calling.

Memories of Life Before the Chernobyl Accident

Sinayda Ivanova Krasnozhon, a former resident of Pripyat who still works in the Exclusion Zone reminisces about life in the city before the accident. She recalls the stadium, basketball court, and pool were always full of people. Krasnozhon says it is still the same Pripyat, but everything in the Zone is dead now. Regarding her own life in the city, she said, "God, I always thought, I'm so lucky. I worked in town and at the power plant at the same time. Just think how lucky I was. But who would have thought such a thing would happen?"

Krasnozhon also laments how the Soviet government sent many more soldiers than scientific experts to the area immediately after the accident. The soldiers were naive about the situation and were exposed to high doses of radiation simply because they didn't know any better. She feels this is the real tragedy of Chernobyl.

Final Thoughts

With no soundtrack, the film makes an immediate and disturbing impact by enveloping the viewer in total silence. This silence is deafening, and continues throughout the film, only broken by dialog or the occasional vehicle or chirping bird. This film is a must-see. Geyrhalter does a masterful job bringing the viewer directly into the Zone for a first-hand look at the results of the world's worst nuclear disaster.