Chroniclers: critics of "Chernobyl", remarkable miniseries of HBO

One of the surprises of the year. Not only for its artistic quality, but because no one (not even the channel itself) expected such critical and public success.

When HBO announced its commitment for 2019 last year (I was there) Chernobyl he seemed barely mentioned. Not only because the focus was on the return (and goodbyes) of Game of thrones but because no one has given too much for this mini-series co-produced with the British company Sky Television. So little HBO trust in the little more than five hours of Chernobyl that he did not even schedule them simultaneously with the United States (as he does with all the news on Sunday). Thus, in Latin America, there were still four days late (in fact, the last episode will be released next Friday) and, today, it appears in second place in terms of audience on HBO chain platforms, behind, of course, the end of the year. GoT.

The first hurdle to overcome to appreciate Chernobyl it is that it is spoken in english. For me, it is so ridiculous to see Soviet characters express themselves in a language that is not theirs, namely Plan B, which usually consists of doing so with a "Russian accent". Once accepted this artistic decision, the mini-series written by Craig Mazin from multiple literary, journalistic, documentary and scientific sources (the main one was The Chernobyl voices, Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize) has many reasons to congratulate herself, starting with the casting, the reconstruction of events, the decor of the time (these heavy concrete structures, this range of gray tones, these monoblocks without grace ) and of course, the captivating narrative of director Johan Renck, a veteran of a thousand battles in the field of video clips (Madonna's regular collaborator) and television (several episodes of Break the bad and many other series).

Everything is in the five episodes: before, during and after the explosion of the nuclear power plant of Ukraine on April 25, 1986, which triggered the largest radioactive disaster in history. The mini-series, with its inevitable choral structure and documentary footprint (beyond its multiple artistic licenses), has for its tragic hero Valery Legasov (Jared Harris), the nuclear physicist who led the actions of confinement after the disaster; Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgård), leader of the Communist Party who fought against the bureaucracy to obtain the necessary means to prevent human losses, was even bigger (according to Russian official figures, there would have been than 31 dead, but the most credible calculations speak of 93,000 direct and indirect victims); and a purely fictitious character like Ulana Khomyuk of Emily Watson who represents all the scientists who, one way or another, have fought to unveil the raw truth against all the pressures.

Chernobyl is an exhibitor of catastrophic films with excellent moments of suspense and tension, it is a melodrama about ethical and moral dilemmas (how to survive in the midst of an accumulation of lies, denials, silences and / or persecutions ) and, in the last chapter, judicial thriller with the resolution of the facts, the search for the perpetrators and the final decisions of each character and the actions of the repressive structures of the state.

This hypnotic magnetic mini-series makes us fascinated by catastrophes (here, lack of foresight, lack of skill, stubbornness and human omnipotence), but also confronts us all the time to extreme decisions (even several times to choose the least harm, by the sacrifice of a few people for the benefit of many people) and by the disintegration not only of a reactor and a part of a nuclear power plant, but also of a whole system based on the misuse of power, bureaucracy, concealment and manipulation. In this sense, it is Gorbachev himself who admitted that the Chernobyl tragedy had been decisive for the fall of the Soviet Union, barely five years later. The beginning of the end …

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