Svetlana Alexievich

This film does not deal with Chornobyl, but rather with the world of Chornobyl, about which we know very little. Eyewitness reports have survived: scientists, teachers, journalists, couples, children... They tell of their old daily lives, then of the catastrophe. Their voices form a long, terrible but necessary supplication which traverses borders and stimulates us to question our status quo.

In the immediate aftermath of the 11 September Paul Virilio suffered from a malaise found very seldom among philosophers, which was caused by an excessive degree of confirmation on the part of reality. He broke off work on his book "L'accident Intégral" to put together an exhibition that was designed to illustrate the concept of the global accident in all its topicality. The outcome was the much-vaunted Ce qui arrive, which was housed in the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris from 29 November 2002 to 30 March 2003. The cinematic installation, Unknown Quantity, which was a key part of the exhibition, features the staging of a discussion between Paul Virilio and Svetlana Alexiyevich, the author of the book "Chernobyl. Chronicle of the Future", the essential witness's statement on the conversion of history in catastrophe.

For several years, Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich traveled around in Russia and Belarus to investigate the relationship to love of the Russian people. One, as Svetlana means, is an acute shortage in today's society.

A nurse, a telephonist, a partisan, and other women share their stories of cruelty, love, and routine in wartime.

For three years, filmmaker Staffan Julén has traveled with Svetlana Alexievich in Belarus and Russia to document her working method when her reportage books are created. At first, filmmaker Staffan Julén wanted to make a traditional writer portrait on Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich which she was not interested in. Her suggestion was instead that he would tag along with her in her ongoing projects and follow her when she talks to people about love.

Shortly after the nuclear Chornobyl disaster in 1986, a father risks his life and returns to his deserted apartment to retrieve his front door.

A woman’s perspective on the reality of wartime is a simple human truth, filled with piercing details that seem unbelievable. It is a truth that is not mentioned in official documents, films, or books from the Soviet era, and it is even absent from the memoirs of male veterans. This is a play about life, where concepts like honor, love for the motherland, and compassion held great significance.

In fictional sequences inserted into this documentary about economic, social and political perspectives on possible upcoming developments, the filmmakers portray a utopian future as a foreign territory. Six public figures from various cultural and social circles reflect on the future as a matter of time, people and the world.