Chernobyl: Utopia in Flames

History Documentary hosted by Mark Rossman, published by ZDF in 2023 - English narration



Information
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The Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986 is considered the worst nuclear accident in mankind's history - both in terms of casualties and costs. It has impacted the world forever. Many have seen the fictional account. But the true story is even more complex, more human and more shocking than we could ever have imagined.
It starts in 1970 in an area of forest and marshland in Northern Ukraine, very close to a little village that the Ukrainian locals call Chornobyl, in Russian: Chernobyl. There a utopia was made real: the largest nuclear power plant in the world alongside a model town of Soviet communism, Prypjat - they were the embodiment of the achievements of the New Human.
The people who moved to Pripyat were chosen for their skills, their determination, and their willingness to believe in the future. They would all start as construction workers, and later become shop keepers, nurses, policemen, plumbers - everything needed to keep their city going. They lived a dream that most of us today can hardly fathom. But this dream was torn asunder on April 26, 1986 - and today, it is only this ending that most people know about Chernobyl and Pripyat. Now, we uncover the whole, true story through new footage from the nuclear exclusion zone as well as a collection of largely unpublished archive material from the Soviet era, elaborately animating key technical concepts, revealing personal stories of witnesses who lived in that utopia and survived the disaster.
With our contemporary witnesses, we immerse ourselves in the Atomic Age of the Soviet Empire, which is initially shaped by a belief in technology and progress but is soon being pushed through with lies, secrecy and manipulation. These witnesses include nuclear engineer Nikolai Steinberg, who was involved in the construction of Chernobyl and devoted his later life to searching for the real reasons for the disaster; Maria Protsenko, the chief architect of the nuclear city, Prypjat; Oleksiy Breus and Boris Stolyarchuk, who were young workers in the power plant at the time and who survived the reactor meltdown.
The narrative weaves together their stories into one gripping story arc. Statements from international experts along with detailed animation provide insightful facts and figures that help grasp the scope of the events: starting with the construction of the nuclear power plant in the early 1970s through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 up to the harbingers of the current Ukrainian/Russian tragedy.

Written & Directed by Dirk Schneider and Ariane Riecker; LOOKSfilm, MMD Pro and ZDF Co-Production with MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienforderung and German Motion Picture Fund

1)  Paradise
In 1970, the Soviet Union began building the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A prestige project, as it was to be the largest nuclear power plant in the world - thanks to the RBMK super reactor. The Soviet RBMK reactor was a difficult plant to control. Engineers and KGB agents warned the government in Moscow of the deadly risks. In 1983, a serious accident occurred in Chernobyl, but it was kept quiet. Since 1971, the young nuclear engineer Nikolai Steinberg had been working on the gigantic construction site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. While studying in Moscow, he first heard about the secret RBMK reactor, which was to supply the Soviet economy with energy. In the middle of nowhere, the Soviet Union built a paradise for nuclear engineers and their families. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant with four reactor blocks and the Ukrainian city of Pripyat were built. It is a city designed on the drawing board for the "atomshchiki", the nuclear technicians who work and live in and around the nuclear power plant. The young city planner Maria Protsenko becomes the city's chief architect. The nuclear city of Pripyat is a paradise for the newly arrived Soviet citizens: there are schools, swimming pools, kindergartens, cultural and shopping centers. A super-fast hydrofoil travels daily from the city across the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers to the metropolis of Kiev.

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Technical Specs
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Video Codec: H.264 CABAC High@L4
Video Bitrate: 3 750 Kbps
Video Resolution: 1920x1080
Display Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Frames Per Second: 25.000 fps
Audio Codec: AAC (LC)
Audio Bitrate: 128 kb/s VBR 44.1 kHz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 45 min
Number Of Parts: 4
Part Size: 1.21 GB - 1.24 GB
Source: WEB DL
Capper: DocFreak08

Links
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Source: https://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Chernobyl:_Utopia_in_Flames