In Kyiv in April 1986, journalist Aleksandr Zhuravlyov is partying with friends after returning from Greece. But one of his guests cannot be there – doctor Anatoli Stepanovich is spending the night in the industrial city of Pripyat, where he is tending to the victims of radiation poisoning from the reactor meltdown in nearby Chernobyl. When the evacuation of the city begins the next morning, the press and public are appeased with platitudes. In vain, however. There is panic in Kyiv. Zhuravlyov wants to report from the disaster site, but nobody is allowed into the exclusion zone.
Parallel to the main narrative, a young boy, a couple on a motorcycle, and refugees and evacuees bear witness to human failure, harsh rescue measures, and the benefits of the state’s euphemistic nomenclature. With both action scenes and documentary footage of depopulated land, ‘Raspad’ was the first narrative feature about the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl and remarkably a U.S. co-production – simultaneously a disaster film, an impeachment and a lament. Because, like the atom, society is also subject to decay. On the cinematic level, that shapes up into, among other things, effective breaks with reality.

USSR, Ukrainian SSR, USA 1990, directed by Mykhailo Belikov, 95 min, Russian, Ukrainian, English subtitles, rated: 12

Introduction: Victoria Leshchenko