The Babushkas of Chernobyl

In the radioactive Dead Zone surrounding Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4, a defiant community of women scratches out an existence on some of the most toxic land on Earth. They share this hauntingly beautiful but lethal landscape with an assortment of interlopers—scientists, soldiers, and even ‘stalkers’—young thrill-seekers who sneak in to pursue post-apocalyptic video game-inspired fantasies. Women who chose to return after the disaster, defying the authorities and endangering their health, and, like the wolves, moose, wild boar and other wildlife that have come back to the abandoned forests around Chernobyl, have an extraordinary story of survival.