Land of Oblivion

Land of Oblivion

Land of Oblivion

Moviecut—Land of Oblivion

This is a decent drama revolving around a woman whose life is totally upended on her wedding day, which happens to be the day of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and meltdown. Some very good acting.

Land of Oblivion is educational through its character's livelihoods, offering nothing in terms of plot or entertainment. Sombre, bleak and dull. I understand why it's done as a drama instead of a documentary, but the run-time's too long for what it has to offer as a film.

The Chernobyl disaster, during and 10 years after the event, told as a human-drama movie. The "during" part is interesting though not entirely compelling - you don't see any of the attempts to combat the disaster and hardly see the reactor. Interesting because you see the effect on the general population. The "10 years after" part is dull. The characters are uninteresting and the plot goes nowhere. Overall, doesn't really work - it would have been better if this was a straightforward documentary, rather than an attempted drama.

If someone has read Svetlana Alexievich book "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" /"Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future" , readers probably find this movie as complex and breath-taking as those real eyewitness, post-traumatic stories. People who are moving to a different place greatly miss all the memories and people, related to a certain place, certain environment. Its a drama of people who suddenly had no choice but move and therefore in some point in their lives wanting to search back for their inner state of comfort and happiness. Main character Anya who lost her husband in her wedding day tries to re-live her possible life with another man, living near the Zone and working in the Pripyat city as a guide. She understands that trying to re-live her possible life track as if 1986 wouldn't existed doesn't make her happier. She feels lost and unsteady for making new choices. There is also a story line of a father and kid who got seperated by the tragic events of 1986. That story line portrays endless guilt that the father couldn't resolve during the next decade. He simply dissapeared from his wife and childs life, probably because of fearing to face consequences of accident or possible trial. The kid, however is trying to find him. In short words, movie shows how environmental catastrophe could impact lives of ordinary people.

I saw the movie by accident and was deeply impressed how well Michale Boganim managed to capture humanity and the tragic personal events in this movie, without even showing the events happening directly at the Chernobyl plant. What touched me most was the connection to their hometown of some of the characters. The discord between leaving a heavily polluted placed and staying on the grounds that were their home for many years. The interlink of the stories of the characters in the movie are very well done, too and are sometimes just seconds short, which rather reflects real life than some pathetic happy get- together of characters at the end of most Hollywood movies.

the images, the story , the acting makes this film a kind of experience. it is not more than an eulogy to a time, a place and few people . in same measure, a remember. and homage. a honest film about the fruits of a disaster. a young woman. a teenager. his father. and the shadow of past as root and cage. a movie who remember others and who has as its force source not just artistic value but the science to present the traces of an event in inspired angle. a film from East and an old story from Cernobyl region. a new Zone, different, at first sigh, by the Tarkovsky Zone but with not really different significance. because the revelation has same respiration. the understand of deep truth.