Russia's new ‘Chernobyl’ movie

Producers say this cinematization will be a major attraction, not like HBO's ‘small-screen’ series

The Russian film distribution and production company “Central Partnership” has released a teaser trailer for its new film, “Chernobyl: Abyss,” starring and directed by Danila Kozlovsky. The movie, which debuts on October 8, 2020, depicts the events of the accident that struck the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in late April 1986.

The film’s plot follows three main characters — a firefighter named Alexey (played by Kozlovsky), an engineer named Valera, and a military diver named Boris — as they work to contain the damage and radiation caused by a botched safety test of a nuclear reactor. According to the movie’s description, the three men “descend into hell itself in order to prevent what could be the catastrophe’s most terrifying outcome.”

In an interview with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, producer Alexander Rodnyansky said the motion picture will differ significantly from HBO’s award-winning miniseries “Chernobyl.” “A series for the small screen is one thing. It’s something else to make a visually rich major attraction for wide release. In our case, of course, this is a feature attraction aimed primarily at younger audiences who regularly go to movie theaters.”

“Chernobyl: Abyss” will also star Oksana Akinshina (“Sisters”), Filipp Avdeev (“Summer”), and Ravshana Kurkova (“The Balkan Line”).