The Gateway

Grandma Prisja, her daughter Slava and grandson Vovtshyk live their everyday life in a godforsaken forbidden zone of Chernobyl where there are only wild beasts, rusalkas and stalkers. This is a place where the mythical and realistic worlds blend. A world where people know what really happened in 1986 and why the situation in Ukraine is the way it is. At least Prisja – she is over 80 – knows. She is the archetype of a self-willed Ukranian woman who has survived all the horrors in the history of her country. 30 years after the disaster Chernobyl is still a tempting subject for the genre of social porn. Volodõmõr Tõhhõi’s film avoids all these cliches. On the contrary – this is a serious allegory of the State of Ukraine that has not been able to leave behind the moral decay and confusion caused by the fall of the Soviet empire that followed the Chernobyl disaster. The film is based on Pavlo Arje’s popular play, suggesting that the zone may not be the place where Prisja, Slava ja Vovtshyk live, but the rest of the Ukraine. That those who live in the zone may be more real than those who avoid them like they were lepers. What would Tarkovsky sai about all this? (Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival)