Chronicle of Difficult Weeks
Shevchenko: Chronicle of Difficult Weeks / Шевченко: Чернобыль. Хроника трудных недель (1986)
Description: Shevchenko's crew reached the station on May 14, 1986 — the same day Gorbachev finally addressed the country, to denounce Western "malicious lies" about the disaster. The film opens with that speech, then cuts to aerial footage of the ruin itself. As the camera moves closer, the emulsion begins to crackle with white streaks and spots: gamma radiation striking the film stock as it rolls. The medium documents what the message tries to conceal. Shevchenko died of radiation sickness ten months later.
Director: Vladimir Shevchenko (Володимир Шевченко) / Cinematographers: Viktor Krypchenko (Віктор Крипченко) and Volodymyr Taranchenko (Володимир Таранченко) / Studio: Ukrkinokhronika / Year: 1986