Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes

Feb 28, 2022

1h 36m

★ 7.3

Unseen footage. Untold tragedy.

Overview

Thirty-six years after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in Soviet Ukraine, newly uncovered archival footage and recorded interviews with those who were present paint an emotional and gripping portrait of the extent and gravity of the disaster and the lengths to which the Soviet government went to cover up the incident, including the soldiers sent in to “liquidate” the damage. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes is the full, unvarnished true story of what happened in one of the least understood tragedies of the twentieth century.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Top Hat Productions

Sky Original Productions

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes Trailers

Cast

Self (archive footage)

Ronald Reagan

Self (archive footage)

Mikhail Gorbachev

Fukushima's Minami-soma has a ten-centuries-long tradition of holding the Soma Nomaoi ("chasing wild horses") festival to celebrate the horse's great contribution to human society. Following the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, local people were forced to flee the area. Rancher Shinichiro Tanaka returned to find his horses dead or starving, and refused to obey the government's orders to kill them. While many racehorses are slaughtered for horsemeat, his horses had been subjected to radiation and were inedible. Yoju Matsubayashi, whose "Fukushima: Memories of the Lost Landscape" is one of the most impressive documentaries made immediately after the disaster, spent the summer of 2011 helping Tanaka take care of his horses. In documenting their rehabilitation, he has produced a profound meditation on these animals who live as testaments to the tragic bargain human society made with nuclear power.

0.0

Wolsong: Vanishing Town

Dec 12, 2019

No overview available.

0.0

The KGB Connections: An Investigation into Soviet Operations in North America

Jun 8, 1981

Documentary - This 1982 film explains the KGB infiltration of America. Who they are, what they are doing, and how well they have infiltrated North America. - Harold Brown, Nikita Khrushchev, V.I. Lenin

0.0

Quintinshill: Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster

May 20, 2015

Neil Oliver describes the worst ever railway accident in the UK, which happened a hundred years ago on 22 May 1915, in which three trains collided at Quintinshill near Gretna Green. One of the trains was a troop train taking soldiers to fight in World War I at the Battle of Gallipoli: many of the dead were in this train which caught fire due to escaped gas from the archaic gas lighting in the carriages. The cause of the crash was attributed to a catastrophic signalman's error, but Neil examines whether there were other contributory factors and whether there was a cover-up to prevent investigation of them, making convenient scapegoats of the signalmen.

1.0

Leninland

Nov 30, 2013

At the peak of Perestroika, in 1987, in the village of Gorki, where Lenin spent his last years, after a long construction, the last and most grandiose museum of the Leader was opened. Soon after the opening, the ideology changed, and the flow of pilgrims gradually dried up. Despite this, the museum still works and the management is looking for ways to attract visitors. Faithful to the Lenin keepers of the museum as they can resist the onset of commercialization. The film tells about the modern life of this amazing museum-reserve and its employees.

3.0

Little Potato

Mar 11, 2017

Wes Hurley's autobiographical tale of growing up gay in Soviet Union Russia, only to escape with his mother, a mail order bride, to Seattle to face a whole new oppression in his new Christian fundamentalist American dad.

0.0

There is the Metro!

May 17, 1935

Early documentary about the Moscow metro: the early project, the development and the people working on it.

0.0

Rich Hall's Red Menace

Nov 5, 2019

2019 marks the 30th year since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Rich Hall examines the relationship between the West and the USSR in his inimitable fashion.

0.0

Inferno: The Burning of the SS Morro Castle

Jan 20, 2025

A documentary covering the harrowing tragedy of the SS Morro Castle.

0.0

I'm So Sorry

Jul 13, 2025

In a quiet forest, a sign warns of radiation hazard. “Is this the past or the future?” muses the masked figure who appears like a kind of ghost in nuclear disaster areas. At a time when nuclear power may be re-emerging as an alternative to fossil fuels, this calmly observed and compelling tour takes us to places that may serve as a warning.

4.8

Soviet Hippies

Jun 1, 2017

The hippie movement that captivated hundreds of thousands of young people in the West had a profound impact on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Within the Soviet system, a colorful crowd of artists, musicians, freaks, vagabonds and other long-haired drop-outs created their own system, which connected those who believed in peace, love, and freedom for their bodies and souls. More than 40 years later, a group of eccentric hippies from Estonia take a road trip to Moscow where the hippies still gather annually on the 1st of June for celebration that is related to the tragic event in 1971, when thousands of Soviet hippies were arrested by the KGB. The journey through time and dimensions goes deep into the psychedelic underground world in which these people strived for freedom.

7.6

Chernobyl 30 Years On: Nuclear Heritage

May 6, 2015

Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster, which occurred on the night of April 26, 1986, its causes and consequences are examined. In addition, a report on efforts to strengthen the structures covering the core of the nuclear plant in order to better protect the population and the environment is offered.

7.3

The Scientist, The Imposter and Stalin: How to Feed the People

Jul 31, 2018

The documentary tells two very different human fates in the 1920s Soviet Union. Nikolai Vavilov was a botanical genius, Trofim Lyssenko was an agronomist who made great promises and fake inventions. Each of them tried to solve the country's nutritional problem, but only one succeeded.

0.0

Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History

Mar 8, 2025

The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and built. Navajo people have long held this place sacred, and continue to fight for a future that transcends historical trauma. This is their story.

7.5

Chernobyl, Fukushima: Living with the Legacy

Apr 26, 2016

30 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe and 5 years after Fukushima it is time to see what has been happening in the “exclusion zones” where the radioactivity rate is far above normal.

0.0

Kobe Shinbun no Nanokakan

Jan 16, 2010

Also known as the "Kobe earthquake," the massive earthquake struck the southern Hyogo prefecture on January 17, 1995 and resulted in more than 6,400 casualties. The drama will focus on the reporters working for the Kobe Shimbun, who were determined to keep the newspaper running without interruption, despite the damage suffered during the earthquake. The characters in the drama will all be based on real people, using their real names. Sakurai stars as the photo reporter Tomohiko Mitsuyama, who had joined Kobe Shimbun four years before the earthquake. The show will also have documentary segments such as interviews, including an appearance by Mitsuyama himself.

5.2

Last Days on Earth

Aug 30, 2006

How secure is our future? This eye-opening documentary -- which uses computer-generated imagery to illustrate an asteroid collision, black holes and worldwide plagues, among other threats -- explores seven scenarios that could spell the end of the world. Interviews with noted scientists examine the extent of preparations for these cataclysmic events and what's being done to save future generations from extinction.

9.0

The Gulag Archipelago: The Book That Changed Russian History

Nov 24, 2023

The story of Russian writer and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) and his masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago, published in Paris in 1973, which forever shook the very foundations of communist ideology.

7.2

Czech Dream

Jun 3, 2004

Two students from the Czech Film Academy commission a leading advertising agency to organize a huge campaign for the opening of a new supermarket named Czech Dream. The supermarket however does not exist and is not meant to. The advertising campaign includes radio and television ads, posters, flyers with photos of fake Czech Dream products, a promotional song, an internet site, and ads in newspapers and magazines. Will people believe in it and show up for the grand opening?

0.0

Once in the XX Century

Aug 3, 2004

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the failure of Communism has been symbolically documented by many tv reportages of removals of monumental public sculptures, but the citizens of Vilnius in Lithuania did the unexpected!

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes Trailers