Iara Lee: 

 

When I first visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in 2017, I had no intention of making a film. However, the culture that I found there captivated me. You have this area that was the site of one of the most harrowing disasters in the history of the nuclear era, but now three decades have passed. Forests and wildlife have taken over again in places that humans abandoned. And people, too, have started to return. Some are thrill seekers. Some are artists. Some are scientists.

 

I wanted to document what they are finding in the Exclusion Zone and their fascination with the post-apocalyptic. Of course, hanging over all this are critical environmental and human rights concerns, related to our energy consumption and whether we should be looking to nuclear power sources in an age of climate change. So, to me, this is not just a glimpse into an underground subculture, but also a chance for audiences to think more deeply about some very relevant social issues. These issues are on display in the Exclusion Zone, but they affect us all over the world.

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I made this film with the hope of engaging young people. I wanted to show that a film which is, on its surface, about adventure and exploration can also bring forward deeper conversations. These conversations go beyond post-apocalyptic tourism and encourage us to probe questions about the feasibility of nuclear power and the unintended consequences of pursuing high-tech solutions to our problems. These are themes that have been prominent in my work since I began making films.

 

My very first documentary, Synthetic Pleasures is about the human desire to control nature through technology. It showed people skiing indoors in the summer on carefully groomed slopes with fluffy, man-made snow, as well as a massive indoor beach that visitors said was more appealing than a real beach right next door. It showed people changing their bodies through plastic surgery and transforming their minds through mood-altering drugs—all ways that humans have sought to control or replace nature.

 

That fact that we as a species are incredibly curious and ambitious often leads us onto dangerous terrains. That is an idea that has long fascinated me, and it was a large part of my inspiration to make Stalking Chernobyl.

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We had the pleasure of sharing our documentaries at the Mediterranean Film Festival Cannes on several occasions and each experience has been better than the one before. Our relation started in 2017 when "Burkinabe Rising: The art of resistance in Burkina Faso" was selected to participate. Then "Burkinabe Bounty: agroecology in Burkina Faso" was screened in 2018, and finally in the last edition of the festival "Wantoks: Dance of Resilience in Melanesia" was shown. Thank you to all the people who make this possible and we look forward to continuing to share our work with you.

 

We are living a complicated situation right due to the pandemic, so I hope that you, your family and your loved ones are keeping well during these difficult times. Our thoughts are with those who are dealing with the pandemic on the front line and those whose lives and businesses have been thrown into uncertainty by the sudden changes. We want more festivals like the Mediterranean Film Festival! Once this is over, we hopefully will be able to get together to watch and enjoy a film soon!

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