Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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After 1986, a restricted zone was erected at a radius of 30km around Chernobyl. More than 100.000 people have been evacuated from there, but some have remained or returned. "Pripyat" follows four protagonists who live or work in this zone.

Pripyat is the town near Chernobyl. It is the name of the river that flows along side the plant. It is also the name of a documentary about life inside the town and the Zone around the plant.

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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After the Chernobyl accident the town that was built up around the plant was hastily evacuated. People were loaded on to buses and sent out of dodge. As the crisis was dealt with a 16km exclusionary zone on every side of the plant was set up. No one and nothing was to go in and out of the area unless they were monitored and controlled. Eventually, after as much of the radioactive debris was cleared up, and the damaged reactor was entombed, Soviet officials realized that they needed the power the undamaged reactors could supply so they set up a method by which people would be able to go into the exclusionary zone to run the reactor, monitor the damage and keep out intruders.

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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Pripyat is the story of life in the exclusionary zone.

Shot in stark black and white with a style that seems akin to a Bela Tarr film, this is a haunting portrait of people who choose to live and work in a place of incredible invisible danger. It seems like what it is, a post apocalyptic world where life some how goes on. Its surreal since in our head we know there is danger, but to our eyes everything looks perfectly normal, if, in some places a tad overgrown.

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Why would anyone choose to subject themselves to the danger? For some it’s the money. For others it’s a chance to remain connected to the place they always considered their home. For one couple it is their home, having moved back into the Zone despite being warned of the danger. When we first meet them they tell us they have been their for 12 years. When they moved back they had been warned by experts that they would be dead with in 7.

I am haunted by this film.

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I am haunted by the notion of living and working with in a world that seems perfectly fine, but in reality is full of invisible death. While the people living and working near Chernobyl know the risks of what we are doing I’m left to ponder how many of us are doing something similar but are unaware of it thanks to the dangers of modern life such as pollution.

There is much to ponder in the film.

Definitely worth tracking down.

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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I finally wrote my review of the 1999 Nicklaus Geyrhalter documentary film Pripyat. I had forgotten that this movie is fairly depressing. Then again, is there anything about Chernobyl that is not at least a little depressing?

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I think what struck me most about this film is all the silence in the background. There is no soundtrack - if people are not talking, there is only silence (except for several vehicles and occasional birds chirping). It reminded me very much of my own experiences in the Zone. I still vividly remember a year ago standing in Pripyat's main square in front of the Palace of Culture and hearing absolutely nothing. Think about that - I was standing in the middle of a city that used to be home to almost 50,000 people and heard absolutely nothing!

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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My only complaint about the film is that it was shot in black & white. The B & W treatment makes the area look like a wasteland. I understand that Geyrhalter did this for effect (and it definitely worked), but the area is not a wasteland. The Zone contains a lot of life, but plant and animal. The only reason the area could be considered a wasteland is because over 100,000 people used to live there, and now they can't.

This film is a must see.

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Pripyat (1999) [repost]

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