Overrated and overhyped

From my favorite movies..

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The premise of this movie made in a documentary format is intriguing, and it is interesting to watch as the theory about the catastrophe at Chernobyl unfolds.But that's it - interesting theory, no real facts, no reliable sources, no real technical or physical evidence. Not very convincing.The "genius artist", who came up with the whole idea takes away a lot of the credibility with his artistic nonsensical performance as well.So yeah, I'm not convinced.

This documentary presents numerous speculations about the Chernobyl disaster (most notably alleging that it may have been an 'inside job' done to cover up a costly failed Soviet intelligence project).The film clearly doesn't seem to know whether to back these wild notions and thus 'expose the conspiracy', or to let them represent the troubled/visionary mind of the artist-protagonist Fedor Alexandrovich. It hedges its bets, rather like a horoscope its meaning is largely down to you.This leaves the film with a conspicuous absence in the place where its core integrity should be. I saw this at a festival with filmmaker present and he gave open-ended answers regarding to the conspiracy angle when questioned by the audience. This leaves the film with an artificial range of interpretation, because it lacks any real conviction of its own. It should be noted that some of the footage is great, but unfortunately the whole is less than the sum of the parts.

The movies best moments come when Fedor the artist is in full flight on his conspiracy theory. They say truth is stranger than fiction but you can not be sure from this film which is presented as a documentary but it is not. We are asked to believe that there is another explanation for the Chernobyl disaster and quite some time is invested in following that storyline. That Fedor is an artist and possibly a little mad is clearly signalled early on. The woodpecker is the sound that came from a vast radar antenna array called Duga 3 or Chernobyl 2. It is 150m high and 500m wide and cost a vast amount. It is allegedly one of the reasons why access to Chernobyl has been so restricted. Chernobyl power station and the Duga 3 radar antenna were inspired by the military of the Soviet Union.What we can say about this film is that the conspiracy theory aspect helps to keep it moving. At the end of it we know 3 things.1/ Fedor is a compelling character but not entirely to be trusted. 2/ The Duga radar antenna is huge and deserves its one story. 3/ There is some scary politics going on in present day Ukraine and we should look a bit closer at that. Maybe as Fedor says it is the comeback of the Soviet Union.Certainly it is disturbing that the Russian leader can crush a small country that doesn't agree with him and almost nobody is taking any notice of that. I wonder if the film makers here tried to tell the story of the current Ukraine whether they would get an audience.On the other hand - wrap it up in a fabulist tale and call it a documentary guarantees a bigger audience.In the context of Ukrainian history with the Soviet/ Russian rulers it seems like at the very least that safety plans for Chernobyl were very careless and maybe there is more to the story in that context.The other part of the story includes reference to current and recent events in Ukraine where Russia has taken control in murky circumstances. From http://www.newsweek.com/hunt-russian-woodpecker-246670 "If anything, the military purpose of Chernobyl 2 is a reminder that the purpose of the Chernobyl power station was never entirely civilian, either. While it did provide vast amounts of electricity to Ukraine, its four reactors were of the RBMK variety, meaning they could be easily switched between the fission of uranium for civilian purposes and the enrichment of plutonium for military ones. That left the top of reactor lightly covered, in order to make the switching of fuel assemblies easier."For anyone interested in the real story - you can just look it up. http://chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/cause/

I have seen this documentary twice, and I'd love to watch it again and again. It's a mesmerizing, full of details, thought provoking film. The director managed to incorporate important background historical information and did so in the most skillful way. "The Russian woodpecker" is an example of a masterful documentary: it's a true investigation (with interviews, work in the archives, site visits, etc), incorporation of real-time events (revolution in Ukraine broke out during work on this film), and addition of artistic details that better convey the personality of the main character Fedor. After participating in several Q&A sessions with the director and the crew I learned a lot of interesting information. I saw for myself how genuine they were about making a high quality documentary, and how surprised they were to see it morph into this almost incredible theory about Chornobyl disaster as they researched more and more. The most important to me is that they are themselves skeptical of the theory as the lack of official documents (a lot of them still being in secret archives in Moscow) prevents them from making definite conclusions. On the other hand, they invite the international community to continue the investigation and finally find the truth behind this terrible catastrophe.I really hope that this great documentary will inspire new official international investigation so the world will know the truth. Watch this film if you get a chance - you'll learn so much and you'll be inspired to question the world around you! Bravo!