Zvizdal Berlin

Pétro and Nadia, a couple born and raised in Zvizdal, refuse the evacuation and a newly offered house. They prefer to stay in their old village, in their house. A ghost village. All acquaintances have disappeared, only their plundered houses bear witness to former activity. Petrified places, overgrown by nature that is given free rein again. Zvizdal shows Pétro and Nadia, both well over 80 years old, who indestructibly stand firm in the contaminated zone and a self-chosen loneliness. Without running water, electricity, telephone or post.

For five years, BERLIN traveled to Chernobyl several times a year to spend time with Pétro and Nadia, interview them on camera and follow their lives and choices. How does one bear a separation of years? How are the couple faring as they grow older? What if one of them dies? Will other residents follow them to their native land or will Zvizdal slowly but surely be taken over by nature after years of free play?

There are the superstitions, there is the vodka, the mumbling, the swearing, the singing, the toothache, the ailments of old age, the 20 kilometer walk to the store, the waiting for someone from civilization. There is the very old horse and the emaciated cow. There are large screens on stage, with three models of Pétro and Nadia's village underneath. Overall images and close-ups alternate in this universal portrait about loneliness, survival, poverty, hope and yes, also love between two people surrounded by the colorless, odorless but permanent radiation hazard.