REFLECTING HISTORY

CHERNOBYL: THE INVISIBLE THIEF

(FEVSTRAHLT UND VERGESSEN-20 JAHRE NACH TSCHERNOBYL)

Germany, 2006, 59min., Russian, German

Director: Christoph Boekel
Producer: Christoph Boekel
Script: Christoph Boekel
Cinematographer: Anatolij Rudakow
Editing:Thomas Balkenhol
Music: J.S. Bach, Tri-“O”
Sound: Valerij Jermakow
Production Company: Baum-Film Munich
Print Source:
Baum-Film
Klenzestr. 16, D-80469
Munich, Germany
T:+ 49 89 26024350
F: +49 89 26024351
boekel@baumfilm.de


Chernobyl: The Invisible Thief

On April 26, 1986, the inconceivable happened: a nightmare scenario became horrific reality. That day, reactor block 4 of the Chernobyl atomic power station exploded. In their attempts to contain the disaster, Russian fire fighters were exposed to multiple deadly doses of radioactivity. Three weeks later almost all of them were dead. Very little information about the true extent of the radioactive contamination made its way to the public. The early summer heat, insufficient security measures and lack of knowledge and training exposed the emergency workers to extreme risk. Among the 800,000 deployed to the area to contain the effects of the explosion was young artist Dmitrij Gutin. During the last days of his military service he was posted to the highly contaminated zone to help build a railway. He died just short of his 40th birthday, after many painful years of suffering the effects of radiation poisoning. While researching and filming this project director Christoph Boekel met numerous victims of radiation poisoning, his own wife among them. This vivid, moving film, told from Boekel’s personal perspective, provides a requiem for the often forgotten victims of the disaster and a caveat against putting blind trust in technological advancement.

Christoph Boekel was born in Germany in 1949. Film director, author, producer. After studying philosophy and social sciences Boekel graduated from the Munich TV and Film Academy (HFF). In 1978, he founded Baum-Film. He was a co-founder and, for two years, a board member of the German Association of Documentary Film Makers (AG DOK). In 1981-2, he taught at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (dffb). Since 1987, he has maintained a second place of residence in Moscow, where he has acquired penetrating insights and contacts in various parts of the former Soviet Union. From 1990 to 1995, he had his own production and service enterprise in Moscow. During 2000 and 2001, he was chairman of the Bavarian section of AG DOK. Since 2002, he has been chairman of the Munich International Documentary Film Festival Association.

Filmography: (selected):

Chernobyl: The Invisible Thief (2006);
Vodka: The Tear Of God (2004)
Glimpses Of Hell Ii (1999)
Hitler's Eastern Bulwark (1997)
The War, The Exhibition, My Father (1997)
Visit by an Elderly Lady (1996)
Prisoners Of War (1995)
Moscow - My Nearest and Dearest (1994)
Memories of Inferno (1993)
On Father's Trace (1989)
Enola (1986)
The Longer Breath (1982)
The Long Breath (1977-1979).

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