Yesterday saw the release of Chernobyl: Abyss trailer, the first major Russian-produced film about the immediate aftermath of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
Hundreds of people died in the attempt to both clean up the site of the catastrophe and contain the radiation before it could spread across the continent and beyond. First-time director Danila Kozlovsky (Vikings), who also stars, aims to tell the story through the narrow perspective of one firefighter and his family. Here’s what sets this feature film apart from the recent Emmy-winning HBO series, according to producer Alexandr Rodyansky, who witnessed the event personally:
“We are focusing on a specific family and the impact of the events of 1986, how this changes them and who they become at the end of the story. I saw these firemen myself and I saw these young people who were … risking their lives and losing their lives, and I remember their funerals.”
Rounding out the cast are Oksana Akinshina (Lilja 4-ever), Filipp Avdeev (The Blackout), and Ravshana Kurkova (About Love).
In addition to Kozlovsky and Rodyansky, producers include Sergey Melkumov (Leviathan, Loveless), Vadim Vereshchagin (Billion, Text), and Rafael Minasbekyan (Furious, Frontier). The screenplay is by Elena Ivanova and Aleksey Kazakovby.
Distributor Central Partnership is shopping the film during the Cannes Marché du Film Online. The film is slated for release on October 9 in Lithuania and on October 22 in Russia, with no word on a wider release.
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