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Nuclear Realities: We Live Here + Chornobyl 22 (12A*)

Cold War Visions

,Cinema 1
A man in hazmat suit walking through an abandoned door way

A double bill exploring nuclear terror and the consequences of nuclear disaster in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

We Live Here is a haunting debut documenting the impact of the Soviet Union’s nuclear tests in the Semipalatinsk Station in Kazakhstan. Director Zhanana Kurmasheva turns her camera to the lives of those living in the radioactive zones – three generations of people, some born way after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, whose lives have been irreversibly changed by the consequences of the nuclear tests.

In Chornobyl 22, celebrated Ukrainian documentary maker Oleksiy Radynski works with personal testimonies and covert documentation to create a powerful account of occupation. The film was developed as part of The Reckoning Project, a forensic effort to investigate and record Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

Tagged with: Cinema Cold War Visions

This screening will be introduced by season curator Teodosia Dobriyanova.

The Programme

Chornobyl 22

Dir. Oleksiy Radynski, 2023, Ukraine, 23 minutes

When Russia briefly occupied the Chernobyl Zone in 2022, a worker at the power plant secretly filmed the Russian troops. 

In Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles 

We Live Here

Dir. Zhanana Kurmasheva, 2025, Kazakhstan, 80 minutes

In the vast Kazakh steppe researchers work to identify radioactive areas unfit for humans. From the 1940s until 1991, the Soviet Union conducted hundreds of nuclear tests there, claiming there were no human settlements in proximity.

In Kazakh with English subtitles 

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Cinema 1

Location
Barbican Cinema 1 is located within the main Barbican building on Level -2. Head to Level G and walk towards the Lakeside Terrace where you’ll find stairs and lifts to take you down to the venue floor.   

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.