Chernobyl Heart (2003) User Reviews

The aftermath of the tragedy

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 31 July 2016]

"Chernobyl Heart" is a 39-minute documentary film from 2003. The director is Maryann DeLeo and as she won an Academy award for her work here, this is still her most known and most successful work more than a decade later. The title is the perfect summary of this film. It is about the reactor catastrophe in Chernobyl, but not really about what exactly happened back then (this has been elaborated on enough times), but about what things looked like back in 2003 and how the catastrophe still had an impact on so many people's lives. The "heart" in the title refers to heart defects that are still a huge problem for new-born babies because of what the catastrophe did to their mothers and it's the prime example how this explosion he be seen as so much opposing life that it still destroys the health and lives of people who were war from existing when it actually happened. Mostly in the first half, the film also focuses on other transformations to the human body that feel really painful to watch. It is a very sad documentary, but also one where we can learn something that we have to do all we can to avoid such an event in the future because it will have an impact for decades. But it is also somewhat uplifting to see these doctors work so hard for every life despite not having the best working conditions (especially in terms of money) themselves. The fact how relevant this topic is 30 years after it happened is shown by the fact that there are still new documentaries coming out about the Chernobyl Catastrophe these days. You can see them if you really are interested in the subject. This one here is close to a must-see though and the Oscars got it right. Do not miss out. And on a final note: If you want to see a good fictional live action film dealing with this subject, go for the Oscar-nominated short film "The Door" from 2008.

Shocking true story

[SusieSalmonLikeTheFish · 8/10 · 15 November 2014]

These days EVERYBODY has some vague idea of what the Chernobyl disaster is, so I won't spend a bunch of time explaining. Basically it was the meltdown of a nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, resulting in the town of Chernobyl being evacuated and known for being one of the world's deadliest places.

Sounds like something straight out of a horror movie, right? Well, as disturbing as the accident itself was, the effects on the victims of Chernobyl, mainly children, is far more sad than scary.

Radiation can cause everything from cancer to poisoning to cerebral palsy to adverse mutations. Chernobyl Heart shows this, how good people have had their lives changed badly by this horrible tragedy. Many of the children affected are orphans, abandoned because of their birth defects. It's extremely sad but an unfortunate truth. The strange thing is, Ukraine is not a bad place, neither was Chernobyl, this is just a result of human error. The same thing could happen in Canada, China, the United States, Great Britain, anywhere.

But Chernobyl Heart offers a light at the end of the tunnel. These children are no longer just "victims", they now have a voice.

Recently the 2012 horror movie Chernobyl Diaries came out, and it was a disgusting and inaccurate representation of a town where people once were happy, decent, hardworking human beings. Chernobyl is not a horror story, and this amazing documentary tells the honest truth of the matter. I definitely recommend it, it's totally worth your time.

Heartbreaking

[Kathlina · 10/10 · 9 September 2004]

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

I loved this documentary!

[UkieChic · 10/10 · 29 November 2006]

I am Ukrainian and have been a past member on mission trips to Ukraine to visit orphanages that house children living with the after-effects of the Chornobyl Nuclear Accident. I have been there, I have seen with my own eyes what these children look like. When seeing the children in the film, I was reminded of orphans that I've dealt with. The documentary accurately shows the conditions these children live in and the disabilities they live with. They have large tumors, thyroid cancer, heart anomalies, cerebral palsy, and many more disabilities. Having been in two asylums very similar to the ones shown in the documentary,I hope the only reason for making this documentary was to ask for help from those watching. I've seen firsthand how these children respond to visitors. Even those that are bedridden smile or giggle when you touch them or hold them. Those that are mobile constantly have their arms outstretched for you to pick them up. Though they have disabilities, they no more of what it means to love than "normal" people do. Hopefully, for their sake, people will watch this film and be inspired to help!!! It doesn't take much to make a difference.

Making one realise their own humanity

[thesaint80 · 10/10 · 20 March 2005]

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.

Short but incredibly powerful documentary

[planet_mamoo · 10/10 · 6 June 2005]

When you think of the Chernobyl disaster, you probably think of blurry 80s footage of the ruined reactor, of guys in gas masks evacuating local residents, or the abandoned "zone of exclusion" around the site.

But this film offers another perspective: the horrendous legacy of the radiation cloud -- many times worse than Hiroshima -- that continues to affect the lives of millions of people in the region, especially the semi-hermit kingdom of Belarus.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

And of those affected by the radioactive particles, none are suffering more than the children. Soaring levels of birth defects, thyroid cancer and heart defects (the film was named after the nickname given to the heart defects).

The filmmakers follow the medical and aid workers as they work with these children. It often seems like trying to build sandcastles against a gargantuan tide, and no one seems to go unaffected. Mental retardation, doomed youngsters, tragic parents, traumatized medical staffers ... at times it seems too much.

You'll never see a documentary more emotionally wrenching than this. But it's completely worth it. Well made, without polish or a soundtrack. And the short length was a wise choice ... much more would just make it impossible to watch.

Watch this documentary if you get the chance. You won't regret it. And it might just change your life.

Amazing film- Don't miss it

[mary-131 · 9 October 2004]

I just saw this for the second time and it is a truly haunting film. Only about 45 minutes long, I have watched it on HBO once and then recorded it to show to my husband later. It filled me with such sadness and shock that I just had to share the experience. I had no idea that the effects of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 were so devastating and so long lasting. It seems to be that this whole situation and condition of this area is kept rather under wraps and silent. If everybody knew about these people and their lives now, I would hope more could and would be done to help. If you want to be informed, touched and moved very deeply, please watch this documentary.

We all need to heal our 'Chernobyl Heart"

[xoleyton · 10/10 · 15 November 2005]

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.

How can anyone endorse nuclear?

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 31 January 2016]

Maryann DeLeo's Oscar-winning "Chernobyl Heart" follows Irish activist Adi Roche through Ukraine and Belarus, treating children affected by nuclear fallout from the 1986 disaster. Watching the documentary, I couldn't help but think of Fukushima. Much like how Chernobyl irradiated an entire region, Fukushima leaked mass quantities of radiation into the Pacific Ocean, and a fair amount of it has reached the west coast of North America.

So, when people champion nuclear energy as the solution, remember what you saw in this documentary. The children in northern Ukraine and southern Belarus are likely to suffer severe birth defects for decades to come. Some acquaintances of mine in Germany said that they have to be careful when buying mushrooms since a number of them come from Belarus's irradiated regions (which Aleksandr Lukashenko now wants to repopulate). Solar and wind produce sufficient energy without causing the birth defects that we see in "Chernobyl Heart".

1 Innacuracy Caught, probably many

[cav427 · 1/10 · 26 August 2007]

Chernobyl was a tragic event, caused by human error, and a very poor design (The reactors had no containment buildings, just 1 major example!).

Not mentioned in the movie, how much pollution is really there. There are many more pollutants than just radioactive materials, all much more mutanogenic than the radioactive ones. Moreover, the narrator just cites the nuclear disaster as the cause. This is at a time when nuclear power is necessary to our economy.

The birth defects shown are horrific and tragic, and all very heart wrenching, but truly how many children are effected? There are 1,000's of birth defects in the US and other countries, all can be attributed to causes other than nuclear radiation. Ever hear of the "March of Dimes"?

As for the scene when she holds up the Geiger counter, and says how scarred she is, either by a lie or incompetence, she is using it inaccurately. The selector switch is on Total Count, not on a count by minute (CPM rate), as it should be. Is the total count on over 1 minute, five minutes, several hours, several days? The "clicks" registered do not match up with the count displayed either. It appears to me that it is at maybe a couple of hundred counts per minute, not 13,000 counts every single minute (The LED would look steady at that rate!). Yes there is radiation levels higher than average world background, but there are beaches in France and India, Ramsar Iran, and other places that have very high background counts, and there are relatively few incidences of cancer and birth defects.

Are children with birth defects a good charity? Of course! But one should not lie, by omission or ignorance about it to collect funds.

Yes, Heartbreaking

[bgilch · 1 April 2005]

It says a lot for the ignorance of mainstream film culture that this Academy Award Winning Doc Short has generated only three user comments on IMDb and zero external comments. Has anybody seen this film?

It is also bothersome in a way that the film is in HBO distribution because of the context of exploitative fare HBO deals in---all the sex documentaries Sheila Nevins puts out. And then this, sandwiched in-between.

The imagery is beyond exploitative; it so far over the line and yet obviously true. You could find these birth defects almost everywhere in the world but only in isolation. Here, they are in terrible concentration and the kids are suffering in terrible conditions in terrible state hospitals, mental wards and orphanages. All you Ronald Reagan boosting Americans who think 'freedom' won the day, 'won' the Cold War, look at what you have reduced Russia and its sister states to, just look at this and think what massive Lies you grew up under in the 1970's and 1980's and what they have brought about and become.

The next Chernobyl might be caused by internal terrorism in the US, but it will likely be, as the film says, Chernobyl itself. 97% of the radiation is still concentrated there, says the film.

If I seem angry it is from watching the film, the fallout, pardon the ugly metaphor, from the film. Why this is not a full-length film I do not understand. Why are their no officials interviewed, why is there no government response and responsibility? Why is no one from the UN interviewed? Why is the scope so small? Because the film telescopes to discuss the living conditions and medical defects only, it is 40 minutes of nothing but suffering and the small attempts to curtail it, to fix one problem, the 'Chernobyl Heart' defect that seems so tiny a victory in its symbolism.

It is one of the hardest and most necessary pieces of film I've ever watched. But the content is far too important to be compressed into such a painful frame, so stripped of context.

Think of how much the world could change if all the major TV networks in the world agreed to show this in prime time, simultaneously, without commercials.

When I was growing up in the hippiefied 70's, all the grade seven kids in my school were made to watch "Do You Love This Planet?". (Somehow, I don't think it was on the curriculum.) The most lasting, and sensible, propaganda experiment of my childhood. It stuck. There is no reason for this film not be similarly shown.

Exploitative propaganda

[robert-merkel · 3/10 · 29 April 2006]

This film is certainly a testament to the power of images. I defy anyone to watch this and not feel the pain of the children featured. Sadly, though, its shock value is not matched by actually bothering to substantiate its case.

The use of those tragically deformed children may have great emotional impact, but the documentary didn't bother to actually provide any evidence that their deformities were the fault of Chernobyl. That's because there isn't any, or for that matter any evidence that the level of birth defects has gone up in affected regions (with the exception of babies of pregnant women who actually worked on the cleanup at the time). A further claim was that the infant mortality rate was "three times that of the rest of Europe". This is true, as far as it goes. But the IMR is no higher than Belarus's post-soviet neighbors, and can be explained by the declining standard of living and quality of medical facilities.

I could go on, but just about every other claim made in the documentary is either misleading, strongly disputed in the scientific literature (I made the effort to check after watching the documentary), or plain bogus.

If you're a film student, this film is indeed technically brilliant. But it's based on a complete and utter distortion of the real picture.

Chernobyl heart

[reviewpam · 10 April 2005]

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

A full-on look at the young victims of the Chernobyl disaster

[stevewest-1 · 26 July 2009]

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.