Moving to Chernobyl – Embracing radiation to escape war

The documentary explores the fascinating stories of Vadim Minsyuk and Yuri Andreyev, two men who fled the war in the east of Ukraine in 2014 and resettled near the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. Living with the risk of radiation is better than staying in a war zone, and despite the danger, they decided to move their families to the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster.

Today, Vadim is building up his new company, turning slag into metal to make a modest living, while Yuri has returned to farming, growing sunflowers and food crops. Both men insist that their produce is not contaminated, and despite the continued soil contamination from the dangerous levels of strontium and cesium, Valery Kashparov, Director of the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology, is convinced that the area is ready for a new start. The documentary explores the dangerous reality of living near the exclusion zone, how the radiation levels have decreased over time, and how these men are doing their best to start anew despite the risks.