LOST PARADISE

"Memory is the only paradise we cannot be expelled from". Johann Paul Richter

SYNOPSIS

Olga, a young journalist from Kiev, remembers her childhood as a wonderful time: she used to live in Pripyat, a young town, full of children, mushrooms and flowers. The only problem: Pripyat is located next to the reactor of Chernobyl. At the age of eight years Olga was evacuated with her family. 22 years later she returns with her Brazilian husband to the place of her childhood, which is now a ghost town. A film about the loss of home, the second generation after Chernobyl and the question if it is still dangerous to eat daisies?

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

“I was interested in people of my age who experienced the catastrophe at first hand. This was the starting point for our research in the Ukraine. We did not expect to end up with shooting parts of the film in Brazil. But for Olga Ivan is the direct compensation for the trauma she had experienced in Pripyat. And truly: Ivans Brazil seems like the paradise Olga has lost in her childhood. The love story of Olga and Ivan leaves a trace of hope in this tragedy. It is told from the perspective of the second generation - people who want to start a life free from radiation. But it is important to remember how easy it is to destroy our own paradise.”

– Sebastian Heinzel

CAST / TEAM

FILM STILLS GALLERY

MAKING OF GALLERY

DOWNLOADS

INFORMATION

Festivals

• Kassel Documentary Film Festival - November 2008

• Sofia International Film Festival - March 2009

• Skena Up Internation Student Film and Theatre Festival in Pristina - December 2009