15 Chernobyl Disaster Documentary Films

This Academy Award-winning documentary examines children born after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster who have developed heart problems.

On April 26, 1986, a massive fire erupted in the sky above Ukraine when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Immediately, a large-scale effort involving 500,000 people across the Soviet Union began to contain the radiation,…

This is a true story recounting the devastating nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl.

Military personnel refer to these locations as "FRONTLINE," while those who cleaned up the Chernobyl nuclear plant called it "ROOF COATING." It was the most contaminated and perilous area within the exclusion zone – the remnants of the 4th reactor's…

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the worst in history, devastated a small Ukrainian town. For 25 years, the surrounding area has remained sealed off. This film takes you into the exclusion zone, exploring the abandoned town of Pripyat and meeting those…

This short film offers a glimpse into the present-day conditions of Chernobyl and Pripyat. Created on a very limited budget by the director, the film blends amateur documentary filmmaking with well-researched concepts. The filmmaker notes that the only expense was…

"White Horse" is a short documentary by Maryann DeLeo and Christophe Bisson following a man (Maxym Surkov) as he revisits his Ukrainian hometown after two decades. He was evacuated from Prypiat in 1986 following the Chernobyl disaster and has not…

Around 200 women stubbornly remain in the radioactive Exclusion Zone surrounding Chernobyl, their ancestral home.

On April 26th, 1986, a reactor explosion at Chernobyl releases a massive radioactive cloud over Northern Ukraine and Belarus. The extent of the danger is initially concealed from the world and local residents, who continue with their lives. As May…

"Chernobyl 20" is a 28-minute documentary following Yelena Zmushko's quest for the truth about the Chernobyl disaster and its lasting effects. The film explores the hidden emotional toll the accident took on her, and her eventual relief after leaving the…

This film, the first to address the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's Reactor 4 near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, on April 26, 1986, depicts the immediate aftermath and the subsequent cleanup operation.

This documentary chronicles the construction of a massive, 36,000-tonne steel structure designed to permanently enclose the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was destroyed in the 1986 disaster.

Thirty years after a devastating nuclear disaster released radioactive fallout, biologist Rob Nelson and anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota are granted unprecedented access to the Chernobyl exclusion zone. They are the first scientists allowed unlimited time to study the long-term effects of…

The film explores the often-overlooked human stories of the world surrounding Chernobyl. Through surviving eyewitness accounts – from scientists and teachers to journalists, families, and children – we hear of their ordinary lives before the disaster, and then of the…

This documentary examines the long-term effects of the 1986 nuclear disaster on a city, revealing the surprising resilience of nature within the contaminated zone. The film explores how plant and animal life have adapted and thrived in this abandoned landscape.