Documentary film "Prypiat" to be screened in New York (10/03/99)

Documentary film "Prypiat" to be screened in New York

NEW YORK: The documentary film "Prypiat," directed and produced by Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter, will be screened as part of the New York Film Festival on Sunday, October 3, at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall at 5:30 p.m.

The film is named after the city where many of the workers of the Chornobyl nuclear plant lived. In the aftermath of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident, more than 100,000 people were evacuated from the imediate area and resettled, while a two-mile heavily restricted zone was set up around the power plant. Yet, 10 years later, people have begun to return.

Mr. Gayrhalter seeks out some of these returnees, explores their reasons for coming back and their attitudes towards living with a constant, potentially lethal health threat.

The film is described by the New York Film Festival as "a remarkable, at times surreal look at a real-life ghost town, a place haunted not by spirits but by radiation that has poisoned the land, water and even the air ... The film's elegant black and white cinematography provides an interesting counterpoint to the tranquil landscapes that have come to symbolize a kind of living death."

A photographer as well as a filmmaker, Mr. Geyrhalter was born in Vienna in 1972. His filmography includes "Eisenherz" (1992), "Washed Ashore" (1994) and "The Year after Dayton" (1997).

"Prypiat" is an Austrian entry at the festival. The screenplay is by Mr. Geyrhalter and Wolfgang Widerhofer. The film, which runs for 100 minutes, is in Russian and Ukrainian, with English subtitles.

| Home Page |