Chernobyl (2019): Speaking Truth to Power
If you asked me what recent film or programme deserves to be considered a classic (dare I say masterpiece?), I would nominate HBO’s Chernobyl (2019). Watch it! This five-episode miniseries tells the story of Soviet physicists containing the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The tragedy revealed the lies and façade of the Soviet Union and, according to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, catalysed its eventual collapse. Director Johan Renck conveys the stakes of Chernobyl masterfully, unravelling two main tensions throughout the series. The first is the race against time to stop nuclear meltdown, and the second is the search for what caused the disaster. The USSR is adamant that Soviet reactors do not explode, that it must be human error, but the scientists are determined to find the truth and stop something like this from happening again. In a regime where information is tightly controlled, the hunt for the truth is a dangerous one. Renck recreates a KGB-controlled Soviet world with ha