From Russia comes a teaser for the the first “big budget” feature film about the Chernobyl disaster.
Chernobyl: Abyss recounts the now-familiar story of the events of April 26, 1986, when the reactor exploded and turned the nearby Ukrainian town of Pripyat and surrounding areas into, well, a disaster area.
In this version, originally titled Kogda padali aisty (When the Storks Fell), director-star-coproducer Danila Kozlovsky (Vikings, The Crew) focuses on a group of volunteers who engage in a perilous mission to contain the blaze:
Firefighter Alexey, at first glance, does not look like a hero at all. Engineer Valery and military diver Boris volunteer to go with him on a dangerous mission. There is almost no time to develop a detailed plan. Due to the approach of the melting core, the water in the reservoir under the reactor is getting hotter every hour. The group has a deadly goal—to descend into the inferno and prevent, perhaps, the most terrible outcome of the disaster. (translated from Russian)
Featured performers also include Oksana Akinshina (Lilya 4-Ever, The Bourne Supremacy), Filipp Avdeev (The Blackout), and Ravshana Kurkova (About Love, The Brave). The film is being produced by Central Partnership Productions, Group of Companies Gpm Kit, and Non-Stop Productions on a budget of 690,000,000 RUB ($9.3 million USD). The film’s release is set for October 8 in Russia, with no word on an international release yet.
TDAmaster says
I get the impression that this will lean more heavily into the dramatic aspects of a few individuals’ stories rather than the systemic failures, especially since it’s a Russian production.
Calvin Powers says
I wonder if we will get some of the political intrigue that we saw in the other Chernobyl series.