Raspad
"Raspad" is a Russian epic, a science-fiction docudrama that offers the 1986 Chernobyl disaster as a metaphor for moral decay in the then-Soviet Union.An angry, tough film that has aspirations beyond its immediate storyline, "Raspad" focuses on a group of victims that include a journalist who has just returned from an overseas assignment to find his wife may be having an affair; his old friend, one of the first to die from the effects of the disaster, whose fate leads the journalist down an unexpected path; a pair of newlyweds who, unable to gain any privacy in their home, eventually move into the woods - despite exposure to contamination; a lost little boy who can't find the mother who promised to come back for him; etc.
By personalizing the tragedy of victims as the backdrop of the Chernobyl meltdown unfolds, the filmmakers here succeed in making a harrowing, chilling statement about Russian society in particular and the world's society at large in general. Though its construction is awkward in places, the film as a whole has a disturbing impact.
The Friday night screening will benefit Utah's Downwinders, advocates for survivors of radiation exposure from atmospheric atomic testing.