And Devastation Reigned

Monday, I watched the film adaptation of Voices from Chernobyl here on campus. It was unsettling and upsetting to say the least. I’ve watched a view of the films that they’ve screened here, but all the previous ones had a sense of hope to them. In a way I can’t exactly explain, it felt like the issues presented in the previous films could still be affected by people taking action. The Chernobyl disaster however... It just felt like all we could do was bear witness to what had happened. There was no immediate cure. There was no consolation. There was nothing except time, and that didn't help the people who had to watch their own bodies decay. I can't imagine how it must have felt. What the survivors and their families went through was absolutely terrible. Just thinking about the extent of this one event’s impact is terrifying.

The filmmaker did an amazing job of taking this subject and treating it with the respect it deserved. It was a foreign film, so we were reading subtitles already, but what was really powerful about the film was that the characters in it did not speak on camera. It was all voice over. This way it was not just an interpretation of the book, but literally the voices from Chernobyl with video to emphasize their message.

The film reminded me how much I should appreciate our first responders and the risks they take to keep us safe. They don’t have easy jobs, and they need to be remembered even when they cannot work anymore. The sacrifices they and their families make are extraordinary.