Chernobyl Heart (2003)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Maryann DeLeo

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Plot:

This Academy Award-winning documentary takes a look at children born after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster who have been born with a deteriorated heart condition. |

Plot Keywords:

Nuclear Accident | Chernobyl Ukraine

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

William Novick	...	Himself
Adi Roche	...	Herself

Runtime:

USA:39 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Company:

Downtown TV Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 76th Annual Academy Awards (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Symphony No 3, Opus 36

Exploitative propaganda

This film is certainly a testament to the power of images. I defy anyone to watch this and not feel the pain of the children featured. Sadly, though, its shock value is not matched by actually bothering to substantiate its case.

The use of those tragically deformed children may have great emotional impact, but the documentary didn't bother to actually provide any evidence that their deformities were the fault of Chernobyl. That's because there isn't any, or for that matter any evidence that the level of birth defects has gone up in affected regions (with the exception of babies of pregnant women who actually worked on the cleanup at the time). A further claim was that the infant mortality rate was "three times that of the rest of Europe". This is true, as far as it goes. But the IMR is no higher than Belarus's post-soviet neighbors, and can be explained by the declining standard of living and quality of medical facilities.

I could go on, but just about every other claim made in the documentary is either misleading, strongly disputed in the scientific literature (I made the effort to check after watching the documentary), or plain bogus.

If you're a film student, this film is indeed technically brilliant. But it's based on a complete and utter distortion of the real picture.