BRAMA

The area around the nuclear reactor, which imploded in 1986, offers a borderline experience between the real world and a world inhabited by creatures from Ukrainian mythology as well as horror classics. In addition to entertaining moments and cinematographic quotations, the film also reveals a precise depiction of Ukrainian society: acute poverty, the arbitrariness of the rulers and failed state structures. The ephemeral world of the hermit Prisya seems to be more consistent and unanimous than the bitter reality. She has survived all the catastrophes that the twentieth century of her homeland has expected: famine, the Second World War and radioactive pollution. She still can pass on the knowledge inherited from her ancestors, but none of the offspring is able to take her place. DB