Winner of the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival Chameleon Award for Best Documentary, Julio Soto's 2005 film Radiophobia takes a 56-minute look at the devastation caused by the the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine. Archival film footage and general information about the catastrophe is interwoven with the stories of several former residents returning to the area.

Radiophobia Film Location

The main location of the film is the city Pripyat, former home to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant workers. Pripyat and many villages in what is now known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone were evacuated shortly after the accident. People are not allowed to live in the Zone, though approximately 1,200 elderly people known as samosels returned to their homes in several villages. Today, approximately 250 samosels still live in the Zone.

Chernobyl Accident Background

At 1:23 AM on April 26, 1986, several explosions destroyed Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant. Vitaliy Leonenko, former Director of Health Services at the Pripyat hospital, vividly remembers receiving a phone call at 1:45 AM to respond to an emergency at the medical facility. Both plant operators and firefighters dealing with the inferno were brought in with severe radiation burns. Visiting the therapy department on the hospital's fourth floor, Leonenko noted that on the first day more than 40 victims arrived at the hospital and that number climbed to 126 by the following evening.

Evacuation of Pripyat

The day after the accident, Pripyat's 49,360 residents were told they would have to evacuate for three days. Providing an example of how things worked in the Soviet Union, Leonenko, who also worked with the city's evacuation planning committee, knew the citizens would never return but was unable to tell anyone.

Sasha Amelkyn and his friend Sasha Sirota, both children at the time of the accident, recalled being happy about the evacuation because they would not have to go to class for several days. A chilling archival film clip shows hundreds of busses arriving in Pripyat for the evacuation. The clip is backed with the actual evacuation announcement.

Memories and Thoughts of Former Pripyat and Village Residents

Throughout the film, former residents discuss life in the city and the days following the disaster. Former Pripyat residents Irina Pushtar and Lyubov Sirota visit Irina's apartment and the Cultural Center, where Lyubov used to work. This is Irina's first time in Pripyat since the evacuation and she is horrified at the condition, both indoors and outdoors. "It's like no one ever lived here," she cries, while driving along a city street.

Oleg and Oksana Savchenko return to the swing set where they first met in the summer of 1985. Oksana's father was chief of engineers at the Chernobyl plant the night of the accident and one of the disaster's first victims. In a moment of false hope, the couple discuss what it would be like to repopulate the city.

The film concludes by visiting several samosels, elderly people who have returned to their homes in the Exclusion Zone. One man noted that he and his wife evacuated for three weeks, but she was extremely upset about leaving their home, so they returned.

These people have few concerns regarding radiation in the area. One lady stated, "If there was radiation I would be dead now." Claiming that birds are more susceptible to radiation than humans, another woman noted, "if birds can live here, so can we." Showing the importance of being home, an elderly woman comments, "We have suffered enough but at least we're home now. Even if that reactor explodes again, I'll die at home."

Thoughts About the Film

Anyone interested in the Chernobyl disaster or its consequences will be intrigued by this film. Utilizing the poignant discussions of these former residents along with amazing images, Radiophobia delivers a powerful message regarding the human consequences of a nuclear disaster.