Pripyat

Director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter

1999 / 100min / DCP

After the catastrophic nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, a nearly 20-mile restricted radioactive zone was established around the site, covering terrain in present-day Ukraine and Belarus, and over 100,000 people were evacuated. A little less than a decade after the dissolution of the USSR, Geyrhalter visits the desolate weed-choked streets and decaying buildings of the ghost town of Pripyat, shot in majestically stark black and white, and listens to its handful of remaining residents, who describe lives lived in constant risk of contamination. “Withered landscapes like this are where Geyrhalter thrives… [He] burrows into parts of the world normally walled off from more privileged eyes, marginal territories we don’t (want to) know much about.” —Artforum

Distributor: Icarus Films