AllMovie

In 1986, many people's greatest fears about atomic energy became a reality when an explosion occurred at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine. When a blaze broke out in the wake of the explosion, firefighters were brought in to contain it, and all of them succumbed to radiation poisoning within three weeks; they were only the first of hundreds of thousands of people who would be exposed to dangerous levels of radiation during the crisis. Two decades after the disaster at Chernobyl, the impact of the event is still being felt, and filmmaker Christoph Boekel profiles a number of people whose lives have been touched by the explosion in Chernobyl: The Invisible Thief. Focusing on the story of Dmitrij Gutin, an artist who was part of a military unit sent to the plant site shortly after the explosion and would struggle with radiation-related illness before dying at the age of 39, Boekel allows a number of other victims of Chernobyl speak about their experiences as the artist struggles to survive against long odds. Fevstrahlt und Vergessen -- 20 Jahre Nach Tschernobyl (aka Chernobyl: The Invisible Thief) was screened in competition at the 2006 Chicago International Documentary Festival.