Zvizdal Berlin

Pétro and Nadia, a married couple born and raised in Zvizdal, refuse the evacuation and a new house offer. They prefer to stay in their old village, in their house. A ghost town. All acquaintances have disappeared, only their plundered houses bear witness to a former activity. Petrified places, overgrown by nature that is given free rein again. Zvizdal shows Pétro and Nadia, both well past 80 years old, who hold their ground in the contaminated zone and a self-chosen solitude. Without running water, electricity, telephone or mail.

For five years, BERLIN traveled to Chernobyl several times a year to spend time with Pétro and Nadia, interviewing them on camera and following their lives and choices.

How does one bear years of isolation? How does the couple fare as they grow older? What if one of them dies? Will other residents follow them to their native soil or will Zvizdal slowly but surely be taken over by nature after years of free reign?

There are the superstitions, there is the vodka, the muttering, the cursing, the singing, the toothaches, the old age ailments, the 20 kilometre walk to the shop, the waiting for someone from civilisation. There is the ancient horse and the emaciated cow.

On stage are large screens, with three models of Pétro and Nadia's village underneath. Full-length shots and close-ups alternate in this universal portrait of loneliness, survival, poverty, hope and yes, also love between two people surrounded by the colorless, odorless but permanent radiation hazard.

Zvizdal was selected for the Dutch Theatre Festival and has been performed more than 200 times in 16 different countries since its premiere in May 2016.