In Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl, documentary filmmakers David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky use poetry as a cornerstone of their story about the nuclear accident.

Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl is a powerful and moving documentary telling the story of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and its horrifying aftermath. Directed by David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky, the film is based on Mario Petrucci’s award-winning book-length poem, Heavy Water: A Poem for Chernobyl.

Background on the Chernobyl Accident

In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, several explosions destroyed Reactor 4 at the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station located in northern Ukraine. Enormous amounts of radiation escaped into the atmosphere, severely contaminating vast areas of northern Ukraine, southern Russia, and Belarus.

From late April through August, over 100,000 people were permanently evacuated from their homes. The Soviet government went to extraordinary lengths to hide the truth from their entire nation as well as the outside world.

Firefighters, soldiers and approximately 600,000 “liquidators” worked to put out fires, contain the disaster, and clean up a 30 kilometer area now known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Through the use of photographs, film and poetry, Heavy Water tells the story of these heroic people, who risked their lives to directly deal with the consequences of a nuclear disaster.

The Film’s Unique Approach

Heavy Water is set apart from other Chernobyl documentaries due to the absence of facts and narration. Instead, the film uses Petrucci’s poetry to tell its story against a backdrop of somber, methodical music which integrates perfectly with haunting images from the modern Exclusion Zone.

Stock film from the days immediately following the accident is interwoven with present day images of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant, the countryside, scattered villages and Pripyat, the city that used to be home for the Plant workers. This approach may seem haphazard, but in fact blends extremely well with individual verses read throughout the 52-minute film.

The poetry itself is derived from eyewitness accounts, providing a more personal experience for the audience. While sad, the verses seem to bring the dirty, abandoned buildings and lonely landscapes back to life.

Loneliness, Abandonment and Danger

The film not only focuses on empty fields and abandoned buildings, but also on the lives of several samosels, hearty souls who returned to their homes after the 1986 evacuations. For these people, life is now difficult and isolated, moving at a snail’s pace.

While few people currently live in the Exclusion Zone (none legally), nature is abundant, slowly reclaiming the land. This region appears to be beautiful and serene, yet remains too hazardous for legal human habitation. The samosels are self-sufficient, growing their own food. While these items look safe and normal, eating it slowly pollutes the body.

Summary and Analysis

Heavy Water is a haunting and captivating film that does not paint a hopeful future for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The filmmakers look beyond the accident itself and into the eyes of people directly affected by the aftermath.

The film utilizes a recurring theme - borders. Borders denote the dividing line between where it is safe and where it is contaminated. Physical borders are present, but the dangers are real and invisible, and do not honor these artificial boundaries.

Near the end of the film, a narrator reads a long list of radioactive substances that were released into the environment. The list is overwhelming, yet a fitting conclusion to a startling look at the aftermath of the world’s worst nuclear accident.

In the Soviet Union, Pripyat was once considered to be the town of the future. Who knew the future could be so dangerous, lonely and desolate.

Seventh Art Productions has also screened a shorter version of Heavy Water titled Half-Life: A Journey to Chernobyl.

Photos courtesy of Seventh Art Productions.