Produced just two years after the Chernobyl disaster by Belarusfilm and Goskino and with the assistance of the Belorussian Institute of Radiobiology, “After the Battle” focuses on the lives of Belorussian villagers who were forced from their homes as a result of the accident, and who decided to return to them. The film was one of the first shot inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and the interviews in it show the gaping void in scientific understanding that existed among a certain strata of the populace, and the scientific community. At the same time, the film shows how the bureaucracy attempted to deal with the post-disaster situation, and how it failed in many ways. The story is told through a series of interviews with villagers, bureaucrats, and researchers in radiology and biology including Dr. Igor Vladimirovich Kazakov. The Belorussian Institute of Radiobiology was established in 1987 to assess with and deal with the effects of the incident. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was renamed to State National Institite of the National Academy of Science of Belarus. Today it continues to manage the Polesie Natural and Radiological Reserve which was created to enclose the territory of Belarus most affected by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. As of 2016, 187 locals had returned and were living permanently in the zone
The film contains interviews with the inhabitants of, and footage of, the villages of Chojniki, Brahin, Naroulia, Dzernavicji, Aravicji, Pirki, Chamkou. It traces the evolution of the situation and its perception by the ordinary rural and urban inhabitants, from the first panic, to complacency and finally disbelief — the villagers return to the Exclusion Zone and engage in all the forbidden behaviors, regardless of the risks to their health. The film begins with images shot inside the shattered reactor as workers attempt clean-up. At 1:23 an aerial shot of the complex reveals the extent of the damage. At 4;21, live animals are used in the Exclusion Zone as guinea pigs for radiation effects. At 4:59, exposed mice are tested with geiger counters which spike off the meter. At 9:56, bulldozers push the contaminated surface soil into piles for burial. At 12:30, driving into the Zone, followed by shots of an abandoned village. At 23:37, mice are examined in a lab for radiation effects. At 35:27, a bulldozer demolishes a dwelling. At 36:30, the casket of a former resident is allowed entry into the Zone of Alienation for burial. An ominous prediction is pronounced by one of the “free settlers” who is in the last stages of lung cancer, that “mere 8 million roubles” will not suffice to compensate for the damages the nuclear accident have wrought and that the “economy will follow soon after that”.
Another warning is issued by the scientist Kazakov, based on the research he’s show conducting with lab rats and chickens left to live in the hazardous environment of the Exclusion Zone, about the inevitable grave consequences for anyone. Eventually, more than 200, 000 people died of the longterm disease burden. This death toll may have been exceeded by mortalities from the subsequent collapse of social trust in medical, scientific and research professionals. Many have speculated that the lack of institutional trust led to the collapse of the Soviet Union itself.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
