Special Operation | WATCH DOCS

Oleksiy Radynski’s latest film is built entirely from a remarkable set of archival materials: footage captured by industrial cameras installed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2022. As the title suggests, the Russian army’s occupation of the facility becomes a metaphor for the entire full-scale invasion, one that was chaotic, ill-prepared, and fundamentally absurd. Here, propaganda gestures take precedence over real action: the removal of the Ukrainian flag from its mast or a theatrical distribution of bread staged for military YouTubers. Meanwhile, Russian soldiers, fumbling to disable the cameras, have no idea these are operated remotely by Ukrainians in a nearby building, nor are they aware of the radioactive dangers lurking in the forest where they’ve been ordered to dig trenches. 

Konrad Wirkowski