Urban Mediamakers Film Festival (UMFF) 2009

Into The Zone“ shows the catastrophe of Tschernobyl that happened in the Ukraine on April 26th 1986, when the reactor number 4 of the nuclear plant exploded bringing with it devastation and long lasting consequences. The spectator, so to speak “accompanies” a group of young tourists (from different countries) through the melancholic but also fascinating landscapes, to the place where “it” happened, to the dead city of Pripyat. They express all along the trip their strongs impressions and insist on the fact, that what they “knew” before, does not have much to do with the immediate experience they are living now. Something of this immediacy, which is accompanied by a silent sadness, is conveyed in this film, especially by the juxtaposition of the pictures showing life before and after the accident. A sense of timelessness is felt because the past has left everywhere traces, is in its whole weirdness present, represents through little things, like a book left open in a classroom, a kind of memorial for the next generations. With this film it also becomes clear, once again how imperfect we human beings are, as well as the fact that technical progresses will always carry risks and how important it is to remember that.