"Chernobyl Heart" is a 39-minute documentary film from 2003. The director is Maryann DeLeo and as she won an Academy award for her work here, this is still her most known and most successful work more than a decade later. The title is the perfect summary of this film. It is about the reactor catastrophe in Chernobyl, but not really about what exactly happened back then (this has been elaborated on enough times), but about what things looked like back in 2003 and how the catastrophe still had an impact on so many people's lives. The "heart" in the title refers to heart defects that are still a huge problem for new-born babies because of what the catastrophe did to their mothers and it's the prime example how this explosion he be seen as so much opposing life that it still destroys the health and lives of people who were war from existing when it actually happened. Mostly in the first half, the film also focuses on other transformations to the human body that feel really painful to watch. It is a very sad documentary, but also one where we can learn something that we have to do all we can to avoid such an event in the future because it will have an impact for decades. But it is also somewhat uplifting to see these doctors work so hard for every life despite not having the best working conditions (especially in terms of money) themselves. The fact how relevant this topic is 30 years after it happened is shown by the fact that there are still new documentaries coming out about the Chernobyl Catastrophe these days. You can see them if you really are interested in the subject. This one here is close to a must-see though and the Oscars got it right. Do not miss out. And on a final note: If you want to see a good fictional live action film dealing with this subject, go for the Oscar-nominated short film "The Door" from 2008.
Review of Chernobyl Heart
