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Simply A Masterpiece

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Very powerful mix of docu-drama like realism and somewhat surreal and nightmarish tones in this exploration of what happened in the days around and following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. The choice to switch back and forth between a more literal objective point-of-view, and a more subjective and dream-like one would seem to be a recipe for confusion and problematic storytelling, but in practice director and co-writer Mikhail Belikov pulls it off beautifully, creating a deeply disturbing portrait of a moment when things really went to hell, and no one knew just how bad it would be, all the while the government was desperately trying to deny that anything much was even really wrong. Our main character is a very Russian anti-hero; a heavy drinking journalist who wants to uncover the truth, but is motivated by many different things, noble and not. The acting is a bit of a mixed bag, and some of the visual and physical effects show their age and lack of budget, but none of that detracts much from the claustrophobic sense of being inside someone else's nightmare. Worth seeking out, and a shame it's so hard to find.

Raspad is an exciting and anguishing movie to watch and to be part of. The chaos and hysteria depicted in the film draws the viewer into the movie and he/she experience the panic and horror experienced by the residents of the immediate area where the reactor exploded and how it effected all the areas around it, far and wide. It continues to show life after the melt down and what people did, what they were told to do, when no one really knew what to do, how they tried to cope with the knowledge that they may be irreparably damaged and would shortly die, and how in a film noir sort of way they became crazed and made themselves laugh, party, drink hard, sing sad songs, dance, make love and over indulge because it was their last days on earth. It shows how society collapsed because of eminent doom. I had the privilege of working on the project with the generous members of the Pacific Film Fund and with the director, Michael Belikov, when he was brought to the United States for post production through generous donations of concerned citizens against nuclear proliferation, so that Mr. Belikov could complete his very important film project. Though the emotional gravity sometimes gets lost in the translation of mere words spoken by actors, the energy that the film projects about this topic is immediately understood. I did the subtitles for the movie and I'm sure it wasn't enough, words are sometimes limiting, so I encourage the viewer, the audience, to read through the lines, not just between, and to feel what millions must have felt when they learned of their eminent doom and how they've had to live with the changes in nature, in their health, and in their lives since that accident.

Personally, I found the film amateur, disconnected, and forced. The message seems to be global irresponsibility with a drinking song repeated over and over as a cadence. Affairs in marriage, self-serving gratification, and total disregard for anything beyond the moment were themes. Actual footage of the "plant" was extremely short with a few external views and two manufactured scenes inside (both post-apocalyptic). They had a relatively long scene depicting the collection of all young, pregnant women and state "encouraged" abortions, including bloody fetuses. Several random panic scenes were literally sprinkled into the story line, including the classic man-in-wheelchair-pushed-down-stairs. Technically, there wasn't even one accurate detail. Radiation units included "curies," "x-rays," and unitless numbers. In all, this was a terrible waste of time and resources and no clear message was even proffered.In the hour and a half spent, real education could have occurred. Real fears could have been addressed. Real issues could have been discussed and resolved. Instead, just as in the movie, self-serving gratification was deemed more important.Spend your time more wisely.

Raspad is indeed a grim view of the Chernobyl meltdown in Pripyat, and follows a few characters through their trek to the site of the disaster.However it's a comedy, if a deep, black one. There are many threads of humor, more than a few I don't really get (but clearly detectable as cultural references, mainly the hilariously irritating folk singer) but some are pure slapstick -- the opening scene, a man awakens in bed, reaches for his glass of water... complete with false teeth; idle chat in a taxi, man falls of a high crane in the background (EEEEEEEeeeeyaaaahhh....); hamming it up for photos at the site of the meltdown...It's a GREAT movie. With subject matter this grim how else could it be handled? As an added bonus, it was the movie my partner and I saw on our first date, 12 years ago, when we were the only ones laughing.