On April 26, 1986 the nuclear power plant of Chernobyl exploded. The explosion and subsequent fire released huge quantities of nuclear material into the atmosphere. It is known as the most serious nuclear accident in history. Hans Wolkers and Daan Kloeg, both scientist and photographers, returned to Chernobyl several times to make this documentary book so we won't forget. Often they felt like intruders entering the abandoned houses where they saw so many personal belongings left behind of people once leaving in a rush. Even though the houses were empty for decades it confronted them with the personal impact the disaster had on the people, they tried to be as respectful as possible.
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I thought the book was an impressive, confronting, well-composed, interesting, enlightening, beautiful and tragic documentary book. I was touched by the story of the self-settlers, a lot of them are women in their 70s and 80s now, there are not many of them left and they are getting all so old. But I was also touched to see how nature is bouncing back and looking so beautiful, reclaiming the exclusion zone and all what was left behind.
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The first part provides extensive background information about the accident and long-term consequences of the disaster, as well as responses and opinions of different authorities, organisations and scientists. The writers/photographers are scientists themselves and they explained it all in a very clear way. The second part consists of a lot of photographs and impressions of the different 'silent witnesses' like the few old aged self-settlers that returned home, the abandoned villages, Pripyat, ground zero and nature reclaiming the exclusion zone.