Anchored by a man whose quest humanizes global changes, this film traces the historical events and present situation of nuclear disaster across human society. Every nuclear site he revisits represents a specific temporality - Fukushima, Japan, as the ongoing present; Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, as the concealed past; Chernobyl, Ukraine, as the forever alienated present, and Onkalo, Finland, as the future of the future. The narrative created through deconstruction and reconstruction of histories provides a new space to reflect on nuclear issues.
Zhao Liang was born in Liaoning, China in 1971. He graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 1992. Based in Beijing since 1993, he has been working as an independent documentary filmmaker as well as an artist in photography and video art. His films ‘Behemoth’ (2015), ‘Petition’ (2009), ‘Crime And Punishment’ (2007), ‘Together’ (2011) and ‘Paper Airplane’ (2001) have been selected and screened in Cannes, Venice, Berlin and other prestigious film festivals worldwide.