Special Operation

Special Operation

World Premiere: Berlinale 2025 / Forum Expanded

When the Russian troops occupied Ukraine’s Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, their activities were documented by the CCTV cameras. Special Operation is based on that footage, recorded at the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history.

The Chornobyl Zone had been occupied by the Russian troops on February 24, 2022, in the very first hours of their all-out invasion of Ukraine. The Russians had turned the territory of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant into a military base in an attempt to occupy the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, located just a hundred miles away. The Russian plan was to stay in Chornobyl for just three days - their imagined time span for Ukraine’s downfall. Instead, the soldiers were stuck at the radioactive site for several weeks.

A FILM BY Oleksiy Radynski | Ukraine, Lithuania, 2025, 64'