For over 35 years, the story of the explosion at Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant has intrigued many, and myriad movies, TV shows, and news programs have presented their versions of events. Through firsthand accounts and newly discovered archival footage from the former Soviet Union, director James Jones provides an intimate perspective on the tragedy that unfolded in the spring of 1986. New audio interviews with survivors of the disaster—from the wife of a firefighter who died to a ten-year-old schoolboy who lived nearby to a Russian general at the time—deeply humanize the events and demonstrate how individuals and real–world stakes are often forgotten or overlooked. Playing out in the background is the Soviet propaganda and cover-up that minimized the explosion’s risk to the people of Chernobyl, leading to a distrust in government and the eventual fall of the USSR.  BD 

Filmmaker Q&A available

Closed captioning available

This film is only available to viewers in the United States