Chernobyl Heart

I saw this film on HBO this morning and was profoundly affected by it. The helpless and abandon children so lonely and suffering brought me to tears. You want to touch them in some way to ease their pain. I, too, was moved to realize just how blessed I really am. It also frightened me when the filmmaker commented that Chernobyl is the next Chernobyl. That the structure is deteriorating and radio active material that remains within it will soon pose even a greater potential for disaster than the first deadly episode. Is there nothing that can be done to prevent this impending catastrophe? I would greatly appreciate any information that an expert might have regarding this extremely grave situation

To say I was affected by Chernobyl Heart would be putting it mildly. Like many people I imagine, I first viewed Chernobyl Heart on HBO and was reduced to tears at the sight of so many suffering children. It is beyond cliché, however watching children suffer so makes me feel like rubbish for ever complaining about anything in my life. On a positive note, I did begin to involve myself with the Chernobyl Children's Project International, and last Christmas donated money and collected money at my job for their obviously worthwhile cause. Now that I'm back at school, I hope I might continue my work with the organisation. I didn't mean to turn this into a plug for CCPI, however it goes hand in glove with watching such an inspiring film.

Chernobyl Heart is a reflection of the growing dis-ease spreading like a cancer around planet earth....we think that because we don't know about the acute suffering of children,and others, thousands of miles away, or are not aware of the severe poisoning of a portion of Mother Earth's body, that it does not directly affect us. But like any cancer that begins to grow in our body, we are usually not aware of it's presence until it reaches a certain critical point...then we begin to FEEL it directly and can no longer deny its existence. What will it take for us to collectively wake up from our self-absorbed coma that refuses to understand anything at all until it's too late. We can donate our money or time in helping victims of disasters, and this is always needed, but why is this never enough? Have we not noticed that throwing money at calamitous situations never seems to solve the systemic problem of greed and corruption in the consciousness of MEN basically in charge of running everything on this planet? Maybe we all need to awaken our OWN Chernobyl Heart, first............before it is too late.

The Chernobyl reactor itself is seen briefly, and from a distance, to give you an idea of what this documentary is about. Some senior citizens living in the area are interviewed, and the rest of the time is spent in orphanages and hospitals in nearby Belarus, as radiation seems to take the greatest toll on growing or developing bodies. In line with another HBO documentary I've seen, Hacking Democracy, Chernobyl Heart does not have the production values of a HBO television series.

If you are easily disturbed by seeing deformities from radiation then it might be better to give this a miss, but even so it shows the disaster that has befallen Belarus (of which Chernobyl borders), which does not have enough funding of its healthcare system to handle all the victims. "Chernobyl Heart" is the name for a hole in the heart condition and the crew visit an American surgeon who repairs this condition with a $300 heart valve patch which Belarus can only afford a limited number of.

I first heard of this documentary while watching the Academy Awards. I was intrigued, but not enough so to look it up. When it aired on HBO I watched the whole thing and did not manage to hold back my tears. The defects on the people caused by the radiation were devastating to see. It made me wonder how I could ever envy anybody else's life, when compared to these people I have been so blessed. The direction in the movie was amazing, and style was unique. I would recommend this to everyone, but if you do watch it be prepared for some very haunting images that will be sure to stick with you for a long time.

10/10