The
Babushkas of Chernobyl, 72 min. Feature
PowderKeg
Studios Production/ www.thebabushkasofchernobyl.com 1.20.16
contact;
Dir Holly Morris 917 648 1429 or Eleanor Wilson 917 750 5465
thebabushkasofchernobyl@gmail.com
Number |
TC hr:min:sec:fr |
VIDEO |
DIALOGUE [ENGLISH] NO SUBTITLES |
SUBTITLES / LOWER THIRDS / SUPER |
1 |
00:00:04:10 |
Valentyna in her garden, about to go
fishing |
|
Babushka
is going fishing. |
2 |
00:00:07:09 |
|
|
Let’s sit down, friends, before we hit
the long road. |
3 |
00:00:13:21 |
|
|
Fishing
rods. We’ll take the basic ones. |
4 |
00:00:18:03 |
|
|
Today, after the rain |
5 |
00:00:20:18 |
|
|
there won’t be many fish |
6 |
00:00:24:05 |
|
|
but still |
7 |
00:00:27:07 |
|
|
off I go. |
8 |
00:00:28:23 |
|
|
Off
you go, Valentyna Ivanivna. Fishing. |
9 |
00:00:34:07 |
|
|
This way. |
10 |
00:00:36:00 |
|
|
Fishing. |
11 |
00:00:42:01 |
Valentyna on the field walking. |
|
[lower third] Chernobyl
Exclusion Zone Ukraine |
12 |
00:00:54:18 |
|
|
[SINGING] A flock of birds... |
13 |
00:00:58:15 |
|
|
is flying sad |
14 |
00:01:01:19 |
|
|
and only one is happy. |
15 |
00:01:04:10 |
|
|
Just one little... |
16 |
00:01:06:21 |
|
|
silly crane. |
17 |
00:01:13:21 |
Valentyna fishing |
|
The Exclusion Zone is not a prison. |
18 |
00:01:20:10 |
|
|
In Kiev I’d have died long ago, |
19 |
00:01:22:17 |
|
|
five times over. |
20 |
00:01:26:12 |
|
|
The air there is probably worse than it
is here. |
21 |
00:01:31:14 |
|
|
Every car releases the whole periodic
table into the air |
22 |
00:01:35:00 |
|
|
and you inhale that into your lungs. |
23 |
00:01:38:11 |
|
|
Nutrition. |
24 |
00:01:39:23 |
|
|
You eat all sorts of chemicals. |
25 |
00:01:43:12 |
|
|
That’s not healthy, that’s not good. |
26 |
00:01:49:12 |
|
|
Here in the Exclusion Zone, |
27 |
00:01:51:17 |
|
|
life never stopped, nature just took over. |
28 |
00:01:56:12 |
|
|
The river flows just like before. |
29 |
00:01:59:13 |
|
|
The fish live here just like before |
30 |
00:02:08:07 |
|
|
I won’t go anywhere even at gunpoint. |
31 |
00:02:15:06 |
Archival footage of the accident |
|
[SUPER] APRIL 1986 |
32 |
00:02:17:17 |
|
|
An accident has occured |
33 |
00:02:19:21 |
|
|
At the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. |
34 |
00:02:21:15 |
|
|
One of the reactors has been damaged. |
35 |
00:02:24:00 |
Newsreader |
|
The situation is being dealt with. |
36 |
00:02:26:00 |
|
|
Aid is being given to those affected. |
37 |
00:02:28:06 |
|
|
The government has formed a commission of
inquiry. |
38 |
00:02:32:15 |
Archival Footage of reactor |
|
[SUPER] On April 26, 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor No.4 exploded |
39 |
00:02:37:13 |
Archival footage of evacuation |
|
[SUPER] The resulting fire lasted 10 days, releasing 400 times as much radiation as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. |
40 |
00:02:44:14 |
Archival Footage of reactor |
|
[SUPER] Hundreds of thousands of residents were forcibly evacuated. |
41 |
00:03:08:21 |
Archival footage of fence being built |
|
[SUPER] A 2,600 square kilometer radioactive ''Exclusion Zone'' was declared uninhabitable. |
42 |
00:03:15:12 |
Archival footage of fence being built |
|
[SUPER] Evacuees were told they could never return. |
43 |
00:03:21:06 |
|
|
[TITLE CARD] THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL |
44 |
00:03:36:01 |
Exclusion Zone border |
|
[SUPER] Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Border Ukraine |
45 |
00:03:41:16 |
Vita Polyakova at the Security
checkpoint, entrance to the Zone. |
My name is Vita Polyakova. I work as a guide for the
government body who is responsible for all the visits in the Exclusion Zone. |
|
46 |
00:03:41:23 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Vita Polyakova |
48 |
00:03:50:06 |
Security checkpoint, entrance to the Zone |
|
The Exclusion Zone is a regime area of
strict control |
49 |
00:03:53:15 |
|
|
provided by the Minister of Emergencies. |
50 |
00:04:04:04 |
Driving through abandoned villages. |
|
The Exclusion Zone is officially
deserted. |
51 |
00:04:07:13 |
|
|
It’s all closed forever. |
52 |
00:04:15:04 |
|
|
Radiation is the invisible danger. |
53 |
00:04:18:19 |
|
|
So, no smoking, no eating outside |
54 |
00:04:22:04 |
|
|
because of the concentration of
radioactive dust in the air. |
55 |
00:04:25:07 |
|
|
It goes inside your intestines. |
56 |
00:04:30:05 |
|
|
Touching any vegetation is forbidden. |
57 |
00:04:34:11 |
|
|
No mushrooms, no berries, no drinking
water from open water supplies. |
58 |
00:04:39:09 |
|
|
Please avoid touching any structures. |
59 |
00:04:41:20 |
|
|
A wall can be on the verge of collapse. |
60 |
00:04:47:10 |
Reactor No 4 |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor No. 4 |
61 |
00:05:01:06 |
Hanna’s backyard. Cell phone rings |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Kupovate Village Chernobyl Exclusion Zone |
62 |
00:05:07:21 |
Hannah on phone |
|
Hello? |
63 |
00:05:10:13 |
|
|
What? |
64 |
00:05:12:17 |
|
|
You can’t hear me? |
65 |
00:05:15:00 |
|
|
Let me move. |
66 |
00:05:18:02 |
|
|
Can you hear me now? |
67 |
00:05:20:00 |
|
|
Can you hear me now? |
68 |
00:05:21:19 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Hanna Zavorotnya |
69 |
00:05:26:05 |
|
|
Just call me tomorrow. |
70 |
00:05:29:01 |
|
|
OK, bye, bye. |
71 |
00:05:31:04 |
|
|
Looks like it’s off. God knows. |
72 |
00:05:34:16 |
Hanna feeds chickens |
|
Oooh, my chicken. |
73 |
00:05:38:04 |
|
|
First I feed the chickens |
74 |
00:05:43:12 |
|
|
then I feed the pigs |
75 |
00:05:46:19 |
Hanna goes inside the house. Feeds Sonia. |
|
and then I feed the disabled lady. |
76 |
00:05:50:13 |
|
|
Here’s cake for you, Sonia. |
77 |
|
|
|
My sister has been disabled since
childhood. |
78 |
00:06:17:17 |
Hanna showing family graves |
|
Mother |
79 |
00:06:19:11 |
|
|
uncle |
80 |
00:06:21:07 |
|
|
my granny |
81 |
00:06:23:06 |
|
|
and my grandfather. |
82 |
00:06:26:07 |
|
|
This is my boy. |
83 |
00:06:29:22 |
|
|
He died of appendicitis when he was two. |
84 |
00:06:34:23 |
|
|
He could be coming to visit me from Kiev. |
85 |
00:06:45:22 |
Hanna plants flowers on a grave |
|
I love my native land and my graves. |
86 |
00:06:56:11 |
Hanna leaves the cemetery |
|
If I hadn’t come back, I would’ve died by
now. |
87 |
00:06:59:13 |
|
|
When people who moved away visit here,
they’re like this |
88 |
00:07:04:08 |
|
|
and I’m like this! |
89 |
00:07:07:06 |
|
|
You get it? |
90 |
00:07:08:13 |
|
|
That’s all! |
91 |
00:07:12:18 |
Hanna and Maria (neighbor) getting ready
to go over to Maria S. |
|
I’m bringing some guests. And we’ll go visit Maria. |
92 |
00:07:16:19 |
|
|
They will drive us. |
93 |
00:07:19:07 |
Babushkas in the car on their way to
Maria S. |
|
We should have picked at least some corn
flowers for her. |
94 |
00:07:22:03 |
|
|
Oh she’ll get over it! |
95 |
00:07:26:01 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Opachichi Village Chernobyl Exclusion Zone |
96 |
00:07:31:21 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Maria Shovkuta |
97 |
00:07:36:20 |
Maria S. showing her garden |
|
This is Babushka’s garden! |
98 |
00:07:39:06 |
|
|
This is all mine! |
99 |
00:07:42:04 |
|
|
All mine! |
100 |
00:07:44:10 |
|
|
Here Babushka will plant everything! |
101 |
00:07:46:10 |
|
|
Cucumbers, potatoes, beets |
102 |
00:07:50:21 |
|
|
carrots, onions. |
103 |
00:07:54:02 |
|
|
We’ll work with our hands. |
104 |
00:07:57:20 |
|
|
With the shovel, with hands. |
105 |
00:08:00:15 |
|
|
Potatoes will be here and here. |
106 |
00:08:03:11 |
|
|
I’ll plant potatoes over there. |
107 |
00:08:08:07 |
|
|
Even though I’m so small, I’m very hard-working. |
108 |
00:08:16:22 |
|
|
Now stay out! |
109 |
00:08:23:23 |
Maria Shovkuta’s backyard. Hanna and
Maria 2 come for Easter lunch |
|
Christ is risen! |
110 |
00:08:25:17 |
|
|
Truly, He is risen! |
111 |
00:08:27:18 |
|
|
Happy Easter! |
112 |
00:08:30:00 |
|
|
-Happy Easter! -Christ is risen! |
113 |
00:08:34:19 |
Outside Maria S.'s house |
|
[SINGING] We drank vodka |
114 |
00:08:38:11 |
|
|
and we’ll be drinking more. |
115 |
00:08:41:04 |
Babushkas at the Easter table in Maria S. house (Maria S., Hanna, Maria 2) |
|
And whoever makes fun of us |
116 |
00:08:44:10 |
|
|
will be beaten up. |
117 |
00:08:48:18 |
Babushkas drinking shots of alcohol |
|
Cheers! |
118 |
00:08:53:08 |
|
|
This is so good. |
119 |
00:08:59:02 |
|
|
·
It was right around Easter. Yes, it was Easter. |
120 |
00:09:00:23 |
|
|
We had our Easter cakes baked. |
121 |
00:09:03:05 |
|
|
The village head came over and said, |
122 |
00:09:06:13 |
|
|
‘Stop work, the reactor exploded.’ |
123 |
00:09:09:20 |
|
|
We saw a pillar of smoke, a circle of smoke. |
124 |
00:09:17:08 |
|
|
A convoy of buses arrived |
125 |
00:09:19:07 |
|
|
loaded us up and drove off. |
126 |
00:09:21:17 |
|
|
I was evacuated to Kopyliv. |
127 |
00:09:26:08 |
|
|
Oh, I can’t. |
128 |
00:09:28:12 |
|
|
We’ll start crying if we talk about this. |
129 |
00:09:31:00 |
|
|
Some of us weren’t even given water |
130 |
00:09:33:09 |
|
|
because people didn’t want us there. |
131 |
00:09:36:12 |
|
|
They said we brought radiation. |
132 |
00:09:39:03 |
|
|
My darlings, when I returned home |
133 |
00:09:42:10 |
|
|
I was one of the first to come back. |
134 |
00:09:47:23 |
|
|
When I got here, I kneeled down |
135 |
00:09:50:15 |
|
|
grabbed a handful of soil |
136 |
00:09:52:20 |
|
|
put it in my mouth and said |
137 |
00:09:54:15 |
|
|
‘I will never leave here again.’ |
138 |
00:09:57:22 |
|
|
Let’s have a drink. Stand up. |
139 |
00:10:00:13 |
|
|
Christ is risen! |
140 |
00:10:02:14 |
|
|
Truly, He is risen! |
141 |
00:10:06:12 |
|
|
This is not to get drunk but to heal. |
142 |
00:10:08:10 |
|
|
We won’t get any peace till the dusk. |
143 |
00:10:10:16 |
|
|
I can tell. |
144 |
00:10:13:05 |
Babushkas coming to sit on benches in
front of a house – evacuated babushkas, living outside Zone |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Lukashi Village 200 km outside the Zone |
145 |
00:10:20:11 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Relocated women Formerly of Mashevo Village (razed after explosion) |
146 |
00:10:29:04 |
|
|
Let's sing this one. |
147 |
00:10:33:08 |
|
|
The one you like? |
148 |
00:10:38:03 |
|
|
We should have prepared better. |
149 |
00:10:53:17 |
|
|
We were meant to be evicted for 3 days. |
150 |
00:10:56:05 |
|
|
Not our whole lives. |
151 |
00:10:59:02 |
|
|
Evacuated for 3 days. |
152 |
00:11:01:11 |
|
|
That’s it. |
153 |
00:11:03:07 |
|
|
Some villagers snuck back illegally, like
rebels. |
154 |
00:11:08:22 |
|
|
They walked for 70 km |
155 |
00:11:11:01 |
Babushka walks on the road behind barbed
wire fence |
|
right after evacuation. |
156 |
00:11:13:18 |
|
|
They dug under the barbed wire and got
home that way. |
157 |
00:11:20:12 |
|
|
Today, approximately 10 returnees live
inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone - enduring on some of the most toxic land
on Earth |
158 |
00:11:27:05 |
|
|
Almost all of them are women. |
159 |
00:11:34:22 |
Geiger counter beeping. Reactor |
|
Right now we are in the very midst of the
Zone |
160 |
00:11:36:17 |
|
|
the epicenter of the accident. |
161 |
00:11:39:10 |
|
|
The parking lot of the Nuclear Reactor
No.4, where the explosion happened 27 years ago. |
162 |
00:11:45:19 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Vita Polyakova Official Government Guide |
163 |
00:11:50:00 |
|
That sound of beeping all the time - it can
become nervewracking. |
|
164 |
00:11:58:21 |
|
|
Radiation levels near the reactor are approximately 60 times higher than normal. Exposure time is strictly controlled. |
165 |
00:12:07:15 |
|
After the explosion, the Reactor didn’t exist anymore. The active core blew up. The steam literally drenched all the
Exclusion Zone, around the reactor. |
|
166 |
00:12:18:08 |
Map of the Zone with Reactor in the
background. |
This is Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the very center. And we have 10 km zone and then we have
30 km zone. |
|
167 |
00:12:28:00 |
Reactor, sarcophagus |
The structure which you see right now, that is the “sarcophagus”. Inside we have those fuel-containing
masses and that is the source of radioactive dust. |
|
168 |
00:12:36:15 |
|
Radioactive dust has been coming through the holes for 27 years. The radiation which we see here – that is radioactive dust coming from
inside. Plus, the walls may just collapse. |
|
169 |
00:12:57:07 |
Valentyna’s garden |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Teremtsy Village Chernobyl Exclusion Zone |
170 |
00:13:01:23 |
|
|
The sun is shining – it’s all good. |
171 |
00:13:04:09 |
|
|
Babushka talks to herself… |
172 |
00:13:07:15 |
|
|
because she has no one to talk to. |
173 |
00:13:10:18 |
|
|
Who will bring me food? I only have whatever I grow. |
174 |
00:13:15:03 |
|
|
Here – tomatoes, parsley… |
175 |
00:13:19:09 |
|
|
Raspberries… raspberries… |
176 |
00:13:22:16 |
|
|
Here it is my little raspberry bush… |
177 |
00:13:25:10 |
|
|
Just growing here |
178 |
00:13:27:19 |
|
|
my little raspberries… |
179 |
00:13:32:16 |
|
|
I used to live in Pripyat. |
180 |
00:13:35:16 |
|
|
It was a very beautiful town. |
181 |
00:13:37:14 |
|
|
On April 26th , 1986, at 1
a.m. |
182 |
00:13:42:01 |
|
|
I was called into work – urgently. |
183 |
00:13:48:20 |
|
|
I was a medic in the emergency room. |
184 |
00:13:52:22 |
|
|
You can’t imagine how many people were
there, my God. |
185 |
00:13:57:01 |
|
|
We performed gastric cleansing on them, |
186 |
00:13:59:05 |
|
|
intravenous therapy, all the injections. |
187 |
00:14:03:13 |
|
|
The next morning, helicopters and planes |
188 |
00:14:08:22 |
|
|
took the most critical patients to
Moscow. |
189 |
00:14:15:00 |
|
|
No one came back from there. |
190 |
00:14:18:17 |
|
|
There’s a big cemetery there. |
191 |
00:14:22:22 |
|
|
No one came back from there. |
192 |
00:14:26:07 |
|
|
Literally, the next day, I got a
splitting headache. |
193 |
00:14:32:02 |
|
|
I had the feeling |
194 |
00:14:36:08 |
|
|
that some monsters |
195 |
00:14:39:14 |
|
|
with inhuman eyes and appearance |
196 |
00:14:43:14 |
|
|
were before my eyes. |
197 |
00:14:46:20 |
|
|
We weren’t allowed to say anything back
then. |
198 |
00:14:49:14 |
|
|
They told us there was ‘no radiation.’
That’s how it was. |
199 |
00:14:55:16 |
|
|
Then all sorts of tumors started to
appear. |
200 |
00:15:06:04 |
Valentyna in her garden making raspberry
jam |
|
This takes time, of course, but I’m in no hurry. I’m retired. |
|
00:15:15:19 |
|
|
I want to mix this well… |
|
00:15:19:20 |
|
|
and grind the little seeds… |
|
00:15:21:22 |
|
|
so that we get even more goodness out of it. |
|
00:15:25:20 |
|
|
A chef should always taste her cooking. |
|
00:15:30:05 |
|
|
Blackcurrant leaves with raspberry… so
delicious! |
|
00:15:35:04 |
|
|
And sandwiches with butter and jam! |
|
00:16:05:06 |
Ecotesters arrive at Hanna’s |
|
Babushka! |
|
00:16:07:05 |
|
|
Hello, hello. |
|
00:16:12:18 |
Ecotesters helping with water, preparing
to take samples |
|
Would you carry that, please? |
|
00:16:15:20 |
|
|
This is for you. |
|
00:16:17:07 |
|
|
Thank you, thank you! |
|
00:16:19:21 |
|
|
We take samples of soil and anything else
these women have for testing. |
|
00:16:26:11 |
|
|
The samples are taken to the laboratory
for analysis. |
|
00:16:32:21 |
|
|
This is science. |
|
00:16:37:23 |
Eco testers checking records in their
journal |
|
Zavorotniy Oleksandr Andriyovych? |
|
00:16:40:03 |
|
|
He’s already dead. Cross him out. |
|
00:16:42:21 |
|
|
All these are dead, yeah? |
|
00:16:45:12 |
|
|
Not many people are left now. |
|
00:16:48:14 |
|
|
How is your health, Grandma? |
|
00:16:50:04 |
|
|
Oh, good! |
|
00:16:51:06 |
|
|
Good! You look good! You’re smiling. |
|
00:16:54:02 |
|
|
I’m 80 years old! |
|
00:16:55:17 |
|
|
So what? You look fine! |
|
00:16:57:11 |
|
|
Maybe you still go dancing? |
|
00:16:59:05 |
|
|
Go dancing where? |
|
00:17:00:10 |
|
|
Oh, so nowhere to go dancing? |
|
00:17:02:04 |
|
|
There’s nowhere to go dancing! |
|
00:17:03:19 |
|
|
We don’t have a nightclub! |
|
00:17:05:10 |
|
|
Is there a grandpa for you here? |
|
00:17:07:14 |
|
|
There’s not a single grandpa here! |
|
00:17:09:19 |
|
|
None? |
|
00:17:10:18 |
|
|
Well, there were two useless ones. |
|
00:17:15:05 |
|
|
Let’s go to your house. |
|
00:17:22:10 |
Eco testers taking samples of food from
Hanna |
|
Grandma, where do you have eggs? |
|
00:17:26:02 |
|
|
Carefully! |
|
00:17:27:04 |
|
|
Thank you! |
|
00:17:28:23 |
|
|
We try to follow how |
|
00:17:31:13 |
|
|
radionuclides migrate from year-to-year |
|
00:17:37:08 |
|
|
from soil to potatoes, from water… |
|
00:17:41:15 |
|
|
You get out and I’ll lock up! |
|
00:17:46:21 |
|
|
The crows fly in |
|
00:17:48:14 |
|
|
and eat all my eggs. |
|
00:17:51:11 |
|
|
I’m a geophysicist |
|
00:17:52:22 |
|
|
I understand where it’s dangerous and
where it’s not. |
|
00:17:56:00 |
|
|
I have special equipment and I know
everything. |
|
00:18:01:11 |
Hanna and eco tester in Hanna’s yard |
|
When people ask me how I got back here, I
say ’by helicopter.’ |
|
00:18:05:10 |
|
|
I don’t say I crawled through bushes. |
|
00:18:07:15 |
|
|
You crawled through bushes? |
|
00:18:09:03 |
|
|
Yes. |
|
00:18:10:00 |
|
|
I ate a berry and thought ’if I die, so be it.’ |
|
00:18:12:13 |
|
|
But I’m alive ‘till today. |
|
00:18:15:20 |
|
|
I’ve eaten everything but stones. I’m
missing teeth. That’s it! |
|
00:18:22:00 |
Ecotesters in the field |
|
Grandma, we have to take some soil. |
|
00:18:29:16 |
|
|
There’s a village outside the Zone. |
|
00:18:32:02 |
|
|
Everyone there eats food from the forest. |
|
00:18:35:04 |
|
|
They pick mushrooms, get firewood, kids
go into the woods. |
|
00:18:39:21 |
|
|
Kids got contaminated early in childhood. |
|
00:18:43:11 |
|
|
They all had elevated levels of
radiation. |
|
00:18:46:22 |
|
|
There was a scandal, of course |
|
00:18:50:08 |
|
|
because that village is outside the Zone. |
|
00:19:03:21 |
At babushka’s house |
|
We’ve come to visit you. |
|
00:19:05:22 |
|
|
Don’t be afraid of us. |
|
00:19:07:23 |
|
|
We don’t contain radiation. |
|
00:19:15:15 |
|
|
It won’t hurt you. |
|
00:19:18:12 |
Ecotesters drinking home-made wine |
|
Homemade strawberry wine. |
|
00:19:20:23 |
Cutaways of the babushka’s pantry; babushka and ecotester in a room |
|
Last year she tried to |
|
00:19:23:20 |
|
|
kick us out with a shovel. |
|
00:19:28:11 |
|
|
-Because I was scared. -Why would you be scared? |
|
00:19:32:05 |
Babushka cleaning mushrooms, telling
story about her evacuation |
|
When they evacuated me |
|
00:19:34:04 |
|
|
they took me away at night, to a new house. |
|
00:19:39:07 |
|
|
I woke up and the sun had risen on the wrong side. |
|
00:19:45:06 |
|
|
The sun was rising on the wrong side. |
|
00:19:48:07 |
|
|
I knew I had to escape and went on foot. |
|
00:19:53:08 |
|
|
But now you’re back in your own house. Nice. |
|
00:19:55:10 |
|
|
I’ve lived here from the beginning to the
end. |
|
00:20:04:15 |
Ecotesters measuring radiation at
babushka house |
|
530! WOW!. |
|
00:20:06:20 |
|
|
- How much? 530! - 530! |
|
00:20:08:07 |
|
|
Is that a lot? |
|
00:20:11:16 |
|
|
- Do you want to say this on camera? - No! Not this! |
|
00:20:15:02 |
|
|
Do we have too much radiation? |
|
00:20:24:22 |
“Stalkers” climbing over barbed wire in
the forest at night |
|
[LOWER THIRD] 1.3 km southeast of Dytyatky Checkpoint |
|
00:21:04:14 |
Maria S. on her porch telling the boar
story |
|
Wild boar! |
|
00:21:07:01 |
|
|
They dig up the potatoes, eat them up and
go back. |
|
00:21:13:08 |
|
|
I scare them like this. |
|
00:21:16:21 |
|
|
And after they’ve had enough to eat, they
run away. |
|
00:21:25:01 |
|
|
I live on my own. |
|
00:21:26:14 |
Maria’s sit-down interview in her house. |
|
Whenever people come to see me, they
always ask the same questions. |
|
00:21:29:22 |
|
|
Why did you come back? |
|
00:21:32:22 |
|
|
Aren’t you afraid of radiation? |
|
00:21:35:18 |
|
|
I’m not afraid of anything, darling. |
|
00:21:39:05 |
|
|
My daughter lives in Kiev. |
|
00:21:43:02 |
|
|
I buried my son when he was 32. |
|
00:21:49:06 |
|
|
That’s a photo of me in Kiev |
|
00:21:51:00 |
|
|
where I met my husband, or he met me. |
|
00:21:55:03 |
|
|
When we sat down to have dinner, |
|
00:22:00:07 |
|
|
I took my fork to reach for some sausage |
|
00:22:04:04 |
|
|
He said: ’No, take it from my hand.’ |
|
00:22:09:11 |
|
|
That sausage was like the magnet he
pulled me in with. |
|
00:22:14:14 |
|
|
We got married in Kiev. |
|
00:22:17:22 |
|
|
I organized a party there. |
|
00:22:21:01 |
|
|
Baba went dancing back then, now I’m no
good… |
|
00:22:24:04 |
|
|
back then I was a star! |
|
00:22:55:10 |
Naumov measuring radiation with Geiger
counter |
|
Ah, a hot spot. |
|
00:22:58:09 |
|
|
Up to 20 microroentgens. |
|
00:23:03:14 |
Naumov in the forest |
|
I constantly monitor information
connected to the Chernobyl Zone. |
|
00:23:13:14 |
|
|
One thing I monitor is these crazy
“stalkers”. |
|
00:23:19:01 |
|
|
“Stalkers” are people who illegally sneak
|
|
00:23:20:18 |
|
|
into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. |
|
00:23:23:04 |
|
|
Every three days, the police catch a
“stalker” |
|
00:23:26:11 |
|
|
I can’t even imagine how many illegal
entries |
|
00:23:28:08 |
|
|
the police don’t know about. |
|
00:23:31:21 |
|
|
It’s because of people playing |
|
00:23:34:03 |
|
|
the video game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. |
|
00:23:26:07 |
STALKER game |
|
TEXT HERE IS PART OF GAME, NOT REMOVABLE |
|
00:23:53:03 |
|
|
The worst thing is when these so-called
“stalkers” |
|
00:23:58:19 |
|
|
try to get to the ghost town, Pripyat. |
|
00:24:03:16 |
|
|
Pripyat
– to get there on foot |
|
00:24:06:14 |
|
|
they have to take highly radioactive
routes. |
|
00:24:10:22 |
|
|
They don’t understand the danger it poses
|
|
00:24:13:14 |
|
|
to their lives and health |
|
00:24:17:03 |
Naumov in the forest w Geiger counter |
|
A lot of the fans of the game are |
|
00:24:23:03 |
|
|
completely out of touch with reality. |
|
00:24:26:13 |
|
|
You can’t play games with the atom. |
|
00:24:34:00 |
Stalkers showing their route on the map |
|
We’re approximately here |
|
00:24:36:05 |
|
|
30 km |
|
00:24:38:09 |
|
|
and Pripyat’s here. |
|
00:24:40:15 |
Stalkers sneaking through a field |
|
This Zone is closed, it’s a security zone
|
|
00:24:43:23 |
|
|
and that’s why we want to go. |
|
00:24:48:14 |
|
|
It’s a feeling of overcoming something
forbidden. |
|
00:24:55:11 |
|
|
You’re drawn to it. |
|
00:25:01:02 |
Stalkers in an abandoned village |
|
If you go to Chernobyl Zone |
|
00:25:03:02 |
|
|
you will see everything how it was 20 or
30 years ago. |
|
00:25:07:05 |
|
|
To go where no man’s foot has stepped for
a long time. |
|
00:25:10:08 |
Stalkers in an abandoned house |
|
It’s really interesting to see and
explore these places. |
|
00:25:14:18 |
|
|
Here’s a stove |
|
00:25:18:21 |
|
|
The radioactive background is within the
norm here. |
|
00:25:23:19 |
|
|
And here it’s a little elevated, around 20. |
|
00:25:35:11 |
Stalker picks up old papers, postcards,
etc |
|
This is from 1979. |
|
00:25:45:13 |
Stalker shots of Chernobyl nature |
|
There are only some little places where
we have a large level of radiation |
|
00:25:51:12 |
|
|
and we can escape these places. |
|
00:26:06:18 |
Stalkers meet a bab on in the Zone |
|
Hello – where are you boys from? |
|
00:26:08:13 |
|
|
We’re from Kiev |
|
00:26:10:21 |
|
|
just going to take some pictures of
Pripyat and other places. |
|
00:26:15:23 |
|
|
Well, go on then. This way. |
|
00:26:20:18 |
|
|
We saw militia today and ran to escape
them. |
|
00:26:25:01 |
|
|
·
On bikes? Yes. |
|
00:26:27:03 |
|
|
Ah, they are from the other village. |
|
00:26:34:09 |
|
|
Go in peace! Thank you! |
|
00:26:37:08 |
|
|
A babushka looking for mushrooms. |
|
00:26:39:04 |
|
|
She struggles to survive. |
|
00:27:04:02 |
Mary Mycio in Van |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Mary Mycio Author, Wormwood Forest: A Natural
History of Chernobyl |
|
00:27:04:03 |
|
This is perfect weather to be here.
Because it’s after the rain, the ground is moist and it’s humid so
everything’s staying in place. |
|
|
00:27:14:23 |
|
The worst kind of weather would be hot
windy dry weather. Cause then the wind picks up the radiation and blows it
around. |
|
|
00:27:22:20 |
|
That’s why the radiation maps keep
changing. Because radiation doesn’t stay in one place, it moves around. |
|
|
00:27:31:00 |
Driving past abandoned ruined houses |
Oh my gosh. Look at that. That’s a ruin. |
|
|
00:27:38:22 |
|
I haven’t been here for probably seven
years. So it will be interesting to see what’s changed. |
|
|
00:27:54:15 |
Mary meets Valentyna |
|
Hello! |
|
00:27:56:11 |
|
|
I thought I was going to miss you, I was at home, sorting berries. |
|
00:27:58:20 |
|
|
Would you like to come and see? |
|
00:28:02:09 |
|
|
Come just for 5 minutes. |
|
00:28:07:00 |
Valentyna walking through her garden |
|
I use a lot of herbs. |
|
00:28:11:06 |
|
|
I use lots of dill – it’s a good
diuretic. |
|
00:28:18:22 |
|
|
This is viburnum hanging here. It’s good for high blood pressure. |
|
00:28:25:00 |
Valentyna showing herbs and berries in
her house |
|
And this is lycopodium. |
|
00:28:27:17 |
|
|
Its pollen is good for burns and healing
all sorts of wounds. |
|
00:28:30:20 |
|
|
How do you use it? |
|
00:28:32:20 |
|
|
You put the pollen on the wound. |
|
00:28:34:18 |
|
|
Do you have herbs you could take for
radiation? |
|
00:28:38:18 |
|
|
For radiation? Everything! |
|
00:28:40:13 |
|
Everything |
|
|
00:28:56:08 |
Mary and Val in the forest |
|
Nature is the source of energy and good
spirits. |
|
00:29:00:03 |
|
|
Lean against the birch with your back. |
|
00:29:03:12 |
|
|
This way the tree passes its energy to a human being. |
|
00:29:11:21 |
|
|
This is heather. It calms the nervous system. |
|
00:29:16:03 |
|
|
That’s what my grandmother taught me. |
|
00:29:19:00 |
|
|
Do others in the village know about herbs? |
|
00:29:22:17 |
|
|
Many people know. They are surrounded by herbs. But others are not
interested. |
|
00:29:26:17 |
|
|
You know how it is - if there’s a puddle |
|
00:29:30:14 |
|
|
some look in it and see the sky. |
|
00:29:33:04 |
|
|
Some see themselves. |
|
00:29:34:17 |
|
|
Some see nothing. That’s just how it is. |
|
00:29:42:02 |
|
|
I got married to my late husband here. |
|
00:29:46:19 |
|
|
He was involved in the clean-up after the
accident. |
|
00:29:50:23 |
|
|
We were together for 40 years. |
|
00:29:57:01 |
|
Valentyna has had some health problems.
She was at the reactor site the night of the disaster. That means that she
got some pretty serious radiation doses. |
|
|
00:30:06:10 |
|
So she got thyroid cancer and had her thyroid removed two years after the
accident. |
|
|
00:30:11:10 |
|
|
Pani Valentyna, you’re healthier than all
of us. |
|
00:30:14:13 |
|
|
Of course, because I live off herbs and
all you do is eat meat. |
|
00:30:18:00 |
|
|
·
No, I don’t. You do, I know you do. |
|
00:30:21:21 |
Valentyna picks mushroom to put on the
tree |
|
We’ll put this mushroom down here for
hedgehogs. |
|
00:30:26:16 |
|
|
They’re small so they’ll be able to reach
it. |
|
00:30:29:07 |
|
|
In winter they don’t eat snow, but they
will eat mushrooms. |
|
00:30:35:12 |
|
|
These are for the roe-deer, these are for
the moose. |
|
00:30:38:21 |
|
|
As you walk around and see decorated
trees |
|
00:30:41:15 |
|
|
you’ll know crazy Valentyna Ivanivna was
behind it. |
|
00:30:44:16 |
|
|
She’s a little cuckoo! |
|
00:30:47:19 |
|
|
But I do what I feel is right. |
|
00:30:51:05 |
|
A mushroom isn’t just a mushroom. It’s a
huge-huge organism. |
|
|
00:30:56:16 |
|
And the layers in which it is absorbing
nutrients are the most radioactive layers of the soil. |
|
|
00:31:04:10 |
|
If you are eating mushrooms, you might be
absorbing radiation actually from a great distance. |
|
|
00:31:12:00 |
|
So, this may be clean – this area here may be clean, but these mushrooms
might be dirty. And the only way of knowing is taking
them to a lab, burning them and testing. |
|
|
00:31:21:15 |
Valentyna walking around the forest,
picking mushrooms |
If they are eating the local food they
are absorbing radiation: |
|
|
00:31:25:06 |
|
cesium, which accumulates in muscle, and strontium, which accumulates in
bone. |
|
|
00:31:32:09 |
Mary in the forest, measuring radiation
on the soil |
This forest – it looks like a storybook
to me. But, there’s a deeper story. |
|
|
00:31:56:14 |
Hanna bringing firewood from outside her
gate |
|
This wood’s from the Zone. Everything’s clean here. |
|
00:32:00:06 |
|
|
A forest worker helps me out. |
|
00:32:06:15 |
|
|
I give him 100 Hryvnya |
|
00:32:10:05 |
|
|
and a liter of moonshine. |
|
00:32:13:10 |
|
|
People don’t like to take money from me, so I give them moonshine. |
|
00:32:17:04 |
|
|
We say – |
|
00:32:18:08 |
|
|
full moon, full bottles of moonshine |
|
00:32:34:21 |
Hanna cleaning mushrooms in her yard |
|
I’ll cook some mushrooms for you. |
|
00:32:37:14 |
|
|
I’ll sauté them with some onions. |
|
00:32:41:04 |
|
|
I’ll wash these and oh, my God! |
|
00:32:45:18 |
|
|
Delicious! |
|
00:32:48:06 |
Hanna getting water from the well. Goes
back to cleaning mushrooms. |
|
I was born during Stalin’s enforced
famine. |
|
00:32:53:09 |
|
|
People who had milk didn’t swell from
hunger. |
|
00:32:57:12 |
|
|
Those who didn’t, swelled. |
|
00:33:02:05 |
|
|
Hunger is hunger – that’s it! |
|
00:33:06:09 |
|
|
Radiation doesn’t scare me. |
|
00:33:08:18 |
|
|
Starvation does. |
|
00:33:24:16 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Chernobyl Town 15 km from Reactor No.4 |
|
00:33:30:00 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Before the accident, Chernobyl Town was
the district capital with a population of 14,000. |
|
00:33:38:07 |
|
|
Chernobyl Town is for the people who work
inside the Zone. |
|
00:33:42:02 |
|
|
Security, or maintenance |
|
00:33:44:01 |
|
|
or researchers, and they do not live
here. |
|
00:33:47:22 |
|
|
They stay here for 15 days per month,
then they’re out |
|
00:22:50:22 |
|
|
then once again they come, so that’s a
constant rotation. |
|
00:33:55:08 |
Post Office building w the sign
displaying radiation levels |
|
At the post office, there’s a sign which
shows the levels of background radiation |
|
00:33:59:09 |
|
|
in the most important locations
everywhere in the Exclusion Zone. |
|
00:34:05:05 |
|
Geiger counters take the measurements and
then every hour they update the information. And over here on the screen one
can see that. |
|
|
00:34:13:19 |
|
|
[Pripyat] 339 Microroentgens/hour |
|
00:34:14:02 |
|
The level of radiation here actually
exceeds the limit. |
|
|
00:34:27:13 |
Post worker Olga making a phone call to
inform babushkas about pension. |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Olga Mykolaivna Chernobyl Postal Worker |
|
00:34:35:20 |
|
|
Hello… Grygorivna? |
|
00:34:39:00 |
|
|
Tell everyone the pension is coming
tomorrow. |
|
00:34:42:10 |
|
|
In the morning, we’ll leave at 8:00. |
|
00:34:45:18 |
|
|
OK, good. Tell everybody. |
|
00:34:48:19 |
|
|
[SUPER] Due to economic instability and
corruption, persions have not been delivered for 4 months. |
|
00:34:57:16 |
Postal/pension delivery van |
|
I’ve been working here since 1986. |
|
00:35:02:03 |
|
|
I deliver pensions to the villages in Chernobyl. |
|
00:35:10:00 |
Hanna trying to lock chickens in the
shed. |
|
Go in the shed now, go in there. |
|
00:35:14:08 |
|
|
Oh, I need to go and get the money! |
|
00:35:21:05 |
Hanna
gets ready to go get her pension |
|
Baba hides her boots in here. |
|
00:35:24:16 |
|
|
It’s so stupid to live to 100! |
|
00:35:30:18 |
|
|
Baba already feels 100! |
|
00:35:33:07 |
|
|
It’s so difficult to stand up. |
|
00:35:42:19 |
Hanna leaves house |
|
Let’s go. |
|
00:35:49:18 |
Hanna walking down the road |
|
Ah, my leg hurts. Hurts, hurts. |
|
00:35:53:20 |
|
|
These aren’t legs, these are torture. |
|
00:36:11:23 |
|
|
OK, Zavorotnya Hanna Oleksiivna. |
|
00:36:14:22 |
|
|
- Where? Zavorotnya, here? ·
Here, Zavorotnya. |
|
00:36:18:04 |
|
|
1,000. |
|
00:36:19:18 |
|
|
100, 200, 300, 400… |
|
00:36:29:00 |
|
|
20, 30, 40, 55 |
|
00:36:33:06 |
|
|
and 60. |
|
00:36:35:08 |
|
|
Thank you, daughters, for the money. |
|
00:36:38:09 |
|
|
Any bonuses? |
|
00:36:46:17 |
Postal worker Olga in the van |
|
My favorite village was Ladyzhychi. |
|
00:36:51:10 |
|
|
Very friendly people. |
|
00:36:55:12 |
|
|
But they all died. |
|
00:37:03:09 |
PW distributing pensions in village 2. |
|
7 Hryvnia and 4 kopecs. |
|
00:37:07:07 |
|
|
How can you wait four months for this? |
|
00:37:10:22 |
|
|
I’m disabled. |
|
00:37:13:04 |
|
|
It’s a nightmare! |
|
00:37:15:09 |
|
|
You can’t get a loaf of bread! |
|
00:37:18:01 |
|
|
Or a little pastry. |
|
00:37:21:01 |
|
|
We have nothing. |
|
00:37:37:16 |
Postal van on the road to next village |
|
It gets worse every year. |
|
00:37:39:06 |
|
|
The doctors used to come with us |
|
00:37:42:07 |
|
|
to check every babushka’s blood pressure |
|
00:37:45:03 |
|
|
and give them shots or pills. |
|
00:37:46:18 |
|
|
They might come once a month, maybe. |
|
00:37:49:13 |
|
|
In winter, when everything is covered
with snow |
|
00:37:52:22 |
|
|
and the roads are impassable |
|
00:37:56:09 |
|
|
even I can’t visit there. |
|
00:37:59:07 |
|
|
When I go to deliver her pension |
|
00:38:01:17 |
|
|
there are wolves running around! |
|
00:38:05:16 |
|
|
Basically a person is out there all
alone. |
|
00:38:13:07 |
Postal worker at the dying babushkas
house |
|
Let’s take babushka some food. |
|
00:38:20:06 |
|
|
She’s usually outside, but not today. |
|
00:38:25:21 |
|
|
In this house you should cross yourself |
|
00:38:28:19 |
|
|
pray and get out. |
|
00:38:32:06 |
|
|
Are you at home? She’s not here |
|
00:38:34:23 |
|
|
Yakovna? |
|
00:38:36:18 |
|
|
What happened? |
|
00:38:39:04 |
|
|
I fell – so bad. |
|
00:38:40:20 |
|
|
Ah, you fell? |
|
00:38:42:04 |
|
|
- You are not getting up, are you? - No. |
|
00:38:45:03 |
|
|
You need to go to the hospital, you can’t
be here like this. |
|
00:38:50:07 |
|
|
Someone from your family should come. |
|
00:38:53:14 |
|
|
Your granddaughter, maybe? |
|
00:38:56:04 |
|
|
You won’t make it here alone |
|
00:39:01:02 |
Postal worker giving pension to the dying
babushka |
|
-OK, give this to her. -Where? |
|
00:39:05:11 |
|
|
Where shall I put it for you? |
|
00:39:22:22 |
|
|
Here you go. |
|
00:39:30:16 |
|
|
Here, underneath you |
|
00:39:32:15 |
|
|
I’ve put it, I’ve put it. |
|
00:39:40:14 |
|
|
Don’t cry, don’t cry. |
|
00:40:11:18 |
|
|
Yakovna was removed to a nursing home
outside the Zone where she died. |
|
00:40:18:02 |
|
|
Per her wishes, her body was smuggled back
into the Zone, where she was buried – illegally. |
|
00:40:30:17 |
|
|
[SINGING] When the time comes to die |
|
00:40:38:17 |
|
|
a foreign land will bury me |
|
00:40:57:04 |
|
|
and the Motherland will never
know. |
|
00:41:07: 22 |
Maria S porch. She’s showing headscarves. |
|
Here it is, here it is. |
|
00:41:12:18 |
|
|
This is for Baba for her death. Let it be there for now. |
|
00:41:19:13 |
|
|
Everything should be nice with no
wrinkles. |
|
00:41:24:06 |
|
|
There’s no village now but back when there were many people, |
|
00:41:27:20 |
|
|
When a person died… |
|
00:41:30:14 |
|
|
at the funeral… |
|
00:41:32:09 |
|
|
no matter how many people were there… |
|
00:41:35:19 |
|
|
in the house or outside… |
|
00:41:37:23 |
|
|
each person would get a scarf. |
|
00:41:43:15 |
|
|
Men would get a scarf around their arm. |
|
00:41:47:20 |
|
|
Those who carried the coffin… |
|
00:41:49:13 |
|
|
and those who laid down the sand… |
|
00:41:52:11 |
|
|
everyone was given a scarf. |
|
00:41:55:00 |
|
|
So Baba has collected those, since before the explosion. |
|
00:42:01:07 |
Maria S cleaning flower bulbs in her yard |
|
I remember everything, my darlings. |
|
00:42:04:17 |
|
|
My father died when I was two. |
|
00:42:08:02 |
|
|
We didn’t see anything good. |
|
00:42:12:00 |
|
|
We were naked and barefoot and hungry. |
|
00:42:16:08 |
|
|
We did starve. We did, we did. |
|
00:42:19:21 |
|
|
Many people died during the famine. |
|
00:42:23:11 |
|
|
And then the war broke out. |
|
00:42:27:06 |
|
|
It was actually easier for us during the war |
|
00:42:31:01 |
|
|
even though war was raging |
|
00:42:34:08 |
|
|
through Chernobyl and our village. |
|
00:42:38:03 |
|
|
The Germans were retreating there |
|
00:42:41:23 |
|
|
and our armies were attacking from over here. |
|
00:42:47:00 |
|
|
They gathered up us teenagers to bury the dead... |
|
00:42:57:09 |
|
|
soldiers who died in the fields… |
|
00:43:00:12 |
|
|
both German and ours. |
|
00:43:04:20 |
|
|
We dug pits |
|
00:43:08:08 |
|
|
covered the bodies with overcoats |
|
00:43:11:05 |
|
|
and put them in the pit. |
|
00:43:17:20 |
|
|
I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. |
|
00:43:20:11 |
|
|
Never, ever. |
|
00:43:22:19 |
|
|
The things we saw. |
|
00:43:27:08 |
|
|
And now we should live |
|
00:43:30:19 |
|
|
but years of life are running out. |
|
00:43:34:02 |
|
|
That’s the way it is. |
|
00:43:49:14 |
Stalkers sneaking by the bridge, get to the river. drinking water from the river |
|
Here’s the bridge |
|
00:43:52:23 |
|
|
Come on, now – drink the water. |
|
00:43:55:18 |
|
|
Then film me and I’ll drink some too. |
|
00:44:04:15 |
|
|
This water is great. |
|
00:44:06:07 |
|
|
Probably better than in Kiev. |
|
00:44:10:08 |
|
|
It has a light uranium aftertaste. |
|
00:44:13:12 |
Stalker with radiation measuring device |
|
Our devices indicate that background (radiation) is increasing. |
|
00:44:19:15 |
|
|
But we’re not giving up. We’re moving further into the contaminated zone. |
|
00:44:24:20 |
|
|
Let’s go! |
|
00:44:27:14 |
|
|
Let’s go! |
|
00:44:31:02 |
|
|
[SIGN] ATTENTION! |
|
00:44:36:18 |
Stalkers crossing barbed wire to the
burial ground. |
|
We’ve gotten to the exact spot we were aiming for. |
|
00:44:38:21 |
|
|
Through the barbed wire. |
|
00:44:41:11 |
|
|
This should be the ’Graveyard.’ |
|
00:44:48:10 |
|
|
Mostly these are places where radioactive waste is buried, machinery. |
|
00:44:55:03 |
|
|
There’s tons of machinery there. |
|
00:45:19:21 |
|
|
Now let’s get out of here. |
|
00:45:29:11 |
|
|
The infamous reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. |
|
00:45:43:11 |
|
|
Start warming the house at 9 in the evening. |
|
00:45:47:02 |
|
|
If you cover well, you’ll sleep good. |
|
00:45:51:00 |
|
|
At my house, you will not fall asleep. |
|
00:45:54:05 |
|
|
Since it got colder, I have to heat my house twice a day |
|
00:45:56:06 |
|
|
morning and evening. |
|
00:45:57:15 |
|
|
Too bad we don’t live in the same village. |
|
00:46:00:07 |
|
|
I could come warm you up. |
|
00:46:04:12 |
|
|
Come on in, anywhere you wish. |
|
00:46:10:22 |
|
|
Dear girls, come here, I have pancakes for you. |
|
00:46:15:20 |
Dinner table at Maria’s |
|
Here’s some wine if you don’t want vodka. |
|
00:46:21:11 |
Hanna and Maria S drinking shots of vodka |
|
Goodbye brains, see you tomorrow! |
|
00:46:28:14 |
Babushka having dinner |
|
We’ve been friends forever. |
|
00:46:33:08 |
|
|
She used to bring me sacks |
|
00:46:35:23 |
|
|
I’d bring potato sacks for Baba Hanna. |
|
00:46:42:04 |
|
|
Once I ran into the street, bragging about a shirt made of this. |
|
00:46:50:07 |
|
|
When you wear it, you want to scratch
your body |
|
00:46:55:05 |
|
|
But now I save it, Maria, because it was my mom’s. |
|
00:46:59:07 |
|
|
It smells like my mom. |
|
00:47:01:18 |
|
|
We went to the village and to school with these bags. |
|
00:47:06:11 |
|
|
I went to first grade when I was seven. |
|
00:47:10:21 |
|
|
I finished four years. |
|
00:47:13:16 |
|
|
So you can write and I can’t. |
|
00:47:17:00 |
|
|
I’m just a talking kind of person. |
|
00:47:19:19 |
|
|
My husband punished me for that. |
|
00:47:24:09 |
|
|
He was a drunk, he would come home and look out! |
|
00:47:28:06 |
|
|
We met, we lived together for many decades. |
|
00:47:32:23 |
|
|
He died three years ago. |
|
00:47:35:14 |
|
|
We existed, not lived together. |
|
00:47:38:17 |
|
|
He would pass out drunk under the fence, he took all the money! |
|
00:47:43:09 |
|
|
I went to my grandma, because my mother had already abandoned me |
|
00:47:48:00 |
|
|
and I said, ’Baba, I want to leave him.’ |
|
00:47:50:07 |
|
|
She said, ’Nobody in our family has ever left their husband, you should
stay.’ |
|
00:47:56:14 |
|
|
We say if the calf is born a certain way, he stays that way. |
|
00:48:00:18 |
|
|
It would have been better if we’d never met. |
|
00:48:03:02 |
|
|
Yes. |
|
00:48:04:20 |
|
|
Now he’s gone, and I have everything. |
|
00:48:08:16 |
Babushkas singing in Maria’s house |
|
[SINGING] Hey, dance, my yellow shoes! Let’s dance! |
|
00:48:10:23 |
|
|
When I get married, I’ll be crying. You’ll be forgotten then. |
|
00:48:19:05 |
|
|
Once again! |
|
00:48:20:16 |
|
|
[SINGING] Play, accordion player! Play, my little dovey! |
|
00:48:24:14 |
|
|
Don’t leave your girlfriend, like
my beloved did! |
|
00:48:33:03 |
|
|
That’s enough! |
|
00:48:34:21 |
|
|
You forgot the one about the mother who gives birth in the fields. |
|
00:49:41:10 |
Vita visits Hanna |
Babushkas Hanya |
|
|
00:49:44:00 |
|
|
Babushka Hanya, hello! |
|
00:49:47:00 |
|
|
How are you doing? |
|
00:49:48:07 |
|
|
Oh, so good! |
|
00:49:49:13 |
|
|
Really, were you asleep? |
|
00:49:51:06 |
|
|
I was asleep. |
|
00:49:52:16 |
|
|
I’m so happy to see you! |
|
00:49:56:00 |
|
|
Where do you get your energy? |
|
00:49:58:20 |
|
|
I see you have plenty of apples! |
|
00:50:00:22 |
|
|
Lots of apples and plums. |
|
00:50:04:13 |
Hanna takes Vita inside the house |
|
Hello, Babushka Sonya! |
|
00:50:06:11 |
|
|
Say hello, Sonya. |
|
00:50:08:13 |
|
|
You come when I don’t have anything cooked. |
|
00:50:10:19 |
|
|
I’ll quickly make pancakes, just a few. |
|
00:50:13:20 |
|
We are forced to eat. All the Ukrainian land ladies have to feed
their guests ‘till they are just “ughhhh.” |
|
|
00:50:24:08 |
|
Only then they are persuaded you are happy
and they have fulfilled their duty. |
|
|
00:50:29:04 |
|
Otherwise, they get insulted. Lethally
insulted. |
|
|
00:50:33:23 |
|
|
Let me take that. |
|
00:50:35:08 |
|
|
Here on the plate, try this one. |
|
00:50:38:09 |
|
|
This one is ready. |
|
00:50:41:01 |
|
|
-Yes. - Is it not good? |
|
00:50:43:07 |
|
|
Let me help you do something. |
|
00:50:47:07 |
|
Will you please let me help you? |
|
|
00:50:49:16 |
|
|
That’s it, I’ve done everything. |
|
00:50:53:04 |
|
|
I’ll get you some cucumbers, let’s go! |
|
00:50:59:15 |
Vita in Hanna’s yard |
I know there are risks. |
|
|
00:51:02:06 |
|
But as for these babushkas I just can’t
say no. Just eat the minimum you can, drink the minimum you can. That’s it. |
|
|
00:51:13:01 |
Hanna picking cucumbers in her garden. Vita in Hanna’s backyard |
When I first came and met them still living here I was amazed how kind
they are and how strong they are. They’re so committed to what they do, to
their homeland although it is contaminated. |
|
|
00:51:45:00 |
Ecotesters at house #3, getting water
from the well, loading samples in the van and leaving. |
|
Come in, please. |
|
00:51:47:00 |
|
|
Hello |
|
00:52:06:00 |
Eco testers arriving at Radiation lab,
bringing in samples |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Chernobyl Town Radiation Testing Laboratory |
|
00:52:18:13 |
Lab workers in the lab, running tests |
|
All samples from the Zone are radioactive. |
|
00:52:23:03 |
|
|
Some returnees have brought in
water from their wells. |
|
00:52:28:01 |
|
|
I feel sorry for people drinking that polluted water. |
|
00:52:32:20 |
|
|
But old people who don’t want to leave |
|
00:52:37:08 |
|
|
say they’ll drink the water anyway. |
|
00:52:43:08 |
|
|
It’s just their ignorance and simple lack of knowledge. |
|
00:52:47:01 |
|
|
Naturally, the babushkas are old now. |
|
00:52:49:13 |
|
|
When they returned, they were already old. |
|
00:52:52:22 |
|
|
But we need to do the research |
|
00:52:54:14 |
|
|
because this is the lives of future generations |
|
00:52:57:04 |
|
|
and their health. |
|
00:52:59:11 |
|
|
Plutonium, americium and uranium |
|
00:53:02:09 |
|
|
don’t just go away. |
|
00:53:04:21 |
|
|
They’ll be here for thousands of years. |
|
00:53:17:16 |
Mary in a van, driving through the Zone |
|
Zalissya – do people still live there? |
|
00:53:19:23 |
|
|
One lady |
|
00:53:21:10 |
|
There’s one lady in Zalissya? |
|
|
00:53:26:13 |
|
They really are dying off. |
|
|
00:53:30:00 |
Mary walking through the forest, in the
abandoned village |
Younger animals, and we are including humans among animals, are far more
susceptible to the affects of radiation. |
|
|
00:53:38:05 |
|
The reason why they semi-officially allowed the babushkas to live here is
because they figured that old age will kill them before any kind of radiation
does. |
|
|
00:53:48:18 |
Mary peaks into abandoned house |
Hello?! |
|
|
00:53:53:12 |
|
Wild boars can pop out of anywhere. |
|
|
00:54:00:18 |
|
For the people who came back it’s impossible to tease out what’s
radiation, what’s drinking, what’s smoking. |
|
|
00:54:07:10 |
|
So far, the only cancer that has been absolutely definitely connected to
Chernobyl is thyroid cancer. That said, the upper estimates are that
up to tens of thousands might have died of radiation induced cancers. |
|
|
00:54:23:10 |
|
All of the medical studies are flawed and flawed in such a way that
partisans on both sides of the nuclear debate can argue that the studies
prove their point. And that’s one of the big problems. |
|
|
00:54:39:17 |
|
You don’t come here for clear answers. |
|
|
00:54:46:06 |
Medical office. SICH chair |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Chernobyl Town Medical Center |
|
00:54:52:14 |
SICH chair, med workers in the office |
|
This machine is a spectrometer of radiation. |
|
00:54:55:19 |
|
|
It’s used to measure |
|
00:54:58:13 |
|
|
cesium 137 in the human body. |
|
00:55:00:07 |
|
|
The level of radiation someone has been exposed to. |
|
00:55:06:14 |
|
|
Your last name? |
|
00:55:08:13 |
Valentyna sitting in medical SICH chair |
|
Sa-che-nok. From ’Sachkuvaty’ to be lazy, but I work. |
|
00:55:14:16 |
|
|
What’s your weight? |
|
00:55:17:08 |
|
|
I’m a little overweight |
|
00:55:20:09 |
|
|
Around 95-100 kg, right? |
|
00:55:22:22 |
|
|
- Oh, that’s too much! - Too much? |
|
00:55:24:11 |
|
|
Should we just say 86, like in your
records here? |
|
00:55:27:04 |
|
|
- 89. - OK, 89. |
|
00:55:29:22 |
|
|
- People gain weight as they get
older. - Of course. |
|
00:55:32:22 |
|
|
- Have you been checked before? - Right after the accident. |
|
00:55:36:04 |
|
|
Press your back against the chair |
|
00:55:37:17 |
|
|
and don’t move. |
|
00:55:41:15 |
|
|
You don’t get much food from the forest,
do you? |
|
00:55:44:18 |
|
|
- I eat many things from the
forest. - A lot? |
|
00:55:47:00 |
|
|
Yes, I know good places to pick food. |
|
00:55:50:02 |
|
|
I pick berries and mushrooms from safe places. |
|
00:55:55:08 |
|
|
The results are coming up. |
|
00:56:05:09 |
Valentyna answers a phone call |
|
It takes forever to find it! |
|
00:56:13:05 |
|
|
I’m busy now, I’ll call you later. |
|
00:56:22:13 |
Valentyna’s test results on the computer
screen |
|
Valentyna Ivanivna, the level of cesium in your body is elevated |
|
00:56:27:16 |
|
|
but it’s within the Maximum Average Dosage. |
|
00:56:31:00 |
|
|
Did you tell me the actual results? |
|
00:56:32:20 |
|
|
Or lie, so I don’t worry? |
|
00:56:34:17 |
|
|
No, of course not. |
|
00:56:36:06 |
|
|
You’re fine. |
|
00:56:37:21 |
|
|
So I’ll live, right? |
|
00:56:40:03 |
|
|
This doesn’t mean radiation isn’t dangerous. |
|
00:56:43:10 |
|
|
But it does show that socio-psychological
factors |
|
00:56:46:23 |
|
|
also greatly influence health. |
|
00:56:50:11 |
|
|
There was a study that calculated |
|
00:56:55:17 |
|
|
the mortality of those who left vs. those who stayed. |
|
00:57:05:14 |
|
|
It showed that evacuees died younger than those who stayed. |
|
00:57:11:07 |
|
|
Quite simply, people die from anguish. |
|
00:57:26:20 |
Evacuated babushkas in circle, on bench |
|
[LOWER THIRD] Lukashi Village 200 km outside the Zone |
|
00:57:39:10 |
|
|
[LOWER THIRD] Relocated women formerly of Mashevo Village |
|
00:57:45:22 |
|
|
We’ve known each other since birth. |
|
00:57:48:04 |
|
|
We’re all from the same village. |
|
00:57:50:17 |
|
|
Mashevo village. |
|
00:57:53:06 |
|
|
We still have dreams about being there. |
|
00:57:58:08 |
|
|
But Mashevo is inside the 10 km Zone. |
|
00:58:01:08 |
|
|
No one went back. |
|
00:58:06:00 |
|
|
Our area was fenced off with barbed wire. |
|
00:58:10:13 |
|
|
You can’t get there. |
|
00:58:14:00 |
|
|
We still want to go home |
|
00:58:16:14 |
|
|
because our lives happened there |
|
00:58:19:11 |
|
|
our childhoods |
|
00:58:21:11 |
|
|
raising children, celebrating marriages |
|
00:58:25:20 |
|
|
seeing loved ones off to the army, everything. |
|
00:58:29:17 |
|
|
Motherland is Motherland. |
|
00:58:33:13 |
|
|
We don’t worry for ourselves anymore |
|
00:58:36:02 |
|
|
our time has passed. |
|
00:58:38:05 |
|
|
We worry about the children. |
|
00:58:39:21 |
|
|
Life is tough for them, and that’s sorrow for us. |
|
00:58:45:22 |
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We had everything in the forest. |
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00:58:48:22 |
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Our children remember |
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00:58:51:08 |
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but their children will never know. |
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00:59:01:01 |
Stalker,
Pripyat. |
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Our GPS shows we’re in Pripyat. |
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00:59:05:07 |
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We’ve been waiting so long for this! |
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00:59:11:05 |
Stalker, abandoned buildings in Pripyat |
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It’s a place after armageddon |
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00:59:13:05 |
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an apocalyptical place. |
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00:59:16:14 |
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It’s a world without people. |
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00:59:20:06 |
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It’s a ghost town. |
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00:59:23:14 |
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Officially, I have the status of a “Child
of Chernobyl.” |
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00:59:29:05 |
Stalker by abandoned highrise, picking
apples from tree |
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My grandfather spent a month in the Zone fighting the Chernobyl fire. |
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00:59:34:06 |
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He must’ve been here against his will… |
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00:59:37:01 |
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but I choose to go. |
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00:59:41:13 |
Stalker video – abandoned sightseeing
wheel, walking on the streets on Pripyat |
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He wouldn’t be happy that I go. |
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01:00:23:12 |
Stalkers on the highrise rooftop |
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This is a post-apocalyptic romance. |
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01:00:53:08 |
Sarcophagus |
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That structure is the future of Chernobyl |
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01:00:56:02 |
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the “New Safe Confinement” that is going to
last for 100 years and more |
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01:01:01:18 |
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On two rails, they are going to slide the
arch |
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01:01:04:09 |
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over the old sarcophagus |
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01:01:09:08 |
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This arch will confine the old shelter |
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01:01:13:18 |
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and all that radioactive dust, it will keep
it inside. |
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01:01:17:21 |
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The 10 km Zone will most probably never be open for the general public. |
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01:01:23:03 |
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There are about 800 burial sites for the spent nuclear fuel |
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01:01:26:22 |
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for the radioactive waste here |
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01:01:28:23 |
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plus, we drag used sources of ionizing radiation |
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01:01:32:11 |
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from the rest of the nuclear power plants in Ukraine. |
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01:01:35:02 |
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There are four of them, apart from Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. |
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01:01:38:04 |
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All the waste are carried to the 10 km
Zone. |
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01:01:42:07 |
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So the 10 km Zone will never be safe |
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01:01:52:07 |
Shots of cemetery. Mary talking |
What the Zone will be in the future? |
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01:01:55:15 |
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It will be that Sarcophagus. And it will be that new covering on the Sarcophagus. |
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01:02:01:04 |
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And how they intend to make that last forever, which it will have to, is
sort of one of THE great mysteries of Chernobyl. |
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01:02:11:00 |
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I mean, it will have to last longer than the pyramids. |
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01:02:15:11 |
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What’s gonna happen 5,000 years from now, what’s gonna be there? Something has to be there. |
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01:02:20:10 |
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And if nothing is there, people will
unknowingly go live there and die, not knowing why. |
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01:02:27:00 |
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Now that it seems that probably every
generation or so there will be a catastrophic breakdown at a nuclear power
plant, it’s something that the world needs to think about. |
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01:02:42:00 |
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The babushkas generation is passing. The population is definitely
dwindling. |
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01:02:49:15 |
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You always kind of wonder about the last specimen of a dying species. And how lonely that must be. |
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01:03:16:03 |
Bus driving at night |
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[SUPER] THE BABUSHKAS JOIN ZONE WORKERS FOR THE
ONLY CHURCH SERVICE OF THE YEAR, EASTER MIDNIGHT MASS. |
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01:03:38:02 |
Babushkas in church |
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Oh, it’s so beautiful. |
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01:03:44:12 |
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Lord, give us strength and have
mercy on us, so we are not in pain. |
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01:03:50:03 |
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We are old people so we pray. |
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01:03:54:22 |
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It’s like getting healthier,
stronger. |
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01:04:08:09 |
Priest conducting Easter Mass. Church bells ringing |
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Blessed is our Lord |
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01:04:11:16 |
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always, now and forever. |
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01:04:36:02 |
Priest blessing Easter baskets |
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Christ is risen! |
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01:04:47:01 |
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-You’re getting moonshine blessed? -Yes, moonshine. |
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01:04:50:22 |
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You can have wine blessed. |
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01:04:53:00 |
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Why not moonshine? |
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01:04:54:03 |
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It’s not allowed. Hide it. |
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01:04:55:21 |
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It’s all allowed. |
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01:05:16:20 |
Babushkas in the bus on their way home. |
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I don’t regret anything. |
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01:05:19:08 |
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I’m still so happy that I’m in my own
house. |
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01:05:24:23 |
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I’m not dependent on anyone. |
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01:05:31:21 |
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I go and work in my garden. |
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01:05:35:09 |
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The sun shines above me. |
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01:05:37:15 |
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And God looks after me. |
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01:04:41:23 |
Maria gets off the bus. |
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My stop is next. |
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01:05:47:20 |
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Open the door and push her out! |
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01:05:54:04 |
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Thanks! Have a safe journey! |
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01:06:10:12 |
Hanna walks to her house |
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Thank God I returned home to my
Motherland. |
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01:06:16:16 |
Hanna enters her house |
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We were never afraid. |
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01:06:21:14 |
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You don’t get sick in your Motherland. |
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01:06:26:09 |
Hanna greets Sonya. |
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Sonya, Christ is risen! |
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01:06:27:17 |
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Truly, He is risen. |
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01:06:47:23 |
Valentyna headed towards the river to
fish |
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[SINGS] My mother planted marigolds |
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01:06:55:20 |
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and taught me to sing songs of spring |
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01:07:02:22 |
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about my blossoming hopes. |
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01:07:12:19 |
Valentyna fishing |
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Come, come, fish |
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01:07:18:10 |
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big and small |
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01:07:25:15 |
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Each person should live where their soul desires. |
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01:07:34:10 |
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And so my life goes on… |
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01:07:41:06 |
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Look, I did catch a little something! |
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01:07:43:14 |
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I hope you don’t doubts, that Valentyna
Ivanivna is a fisherwoman! |
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01:07:52 |
END CREDITS |
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