Filming in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
June 2021
There are several topics related to Ukraine that consistently attract international media attention. Based on my journalistic experience, and roughly in order of prominence, these include:
- Ukraine as a focal point of geopolitical confrontation,
- Russian proxy warfare and cyberwarfare conducted on Ukrainian territory,
- U.S. government involvement in Ukraine’s geopolitical landscape,
- the Maidan Revolution of 2014,
- international “mail-order bride” marriages,
- the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,
- Ukraine as one of the centers of ultra-right movements, and
- surrogate parenthood and medical tourism.
Given this list, a reasonable question arises: why dedicate a separate section of the website to filming in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, when it is important but not necessarily the most dominant media theme?
The answer is simple.
As in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979), the Zone never stays the same. Rules, access requirements, and filming regulations change constantly. More often than not, success depends not on official paperwork alone, but on people — those who understand the rules, know how they are applied in practice, and can explain what is possible today, not what was possible last year.
Over more than ten years of filming with international crews in the Exclusion Zone, I have accumulated practical knowledge of where, how, and with whom to work in order to achieve results. I have repeatedly encountered crews attempting to operate through standard tourist agencies rather than professional media production channels. For experienced documentary filmmakers and television professionals, there is little need to explain how profoundly this choice affects story access, interviews, locations, and overall editorial depth. Still, it is worth emphasizing what this approach ultimately delivers.
Below are selected projects filmed in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with my involvement.
One of the most recent projects was produced for Bloomberg, focusing on Chernobyl as a site for innovative technologies — specifically, the introduction of solar energy infrastructure.
Another major production was Channel 4’s “Our Guy Abroad with Guy Martin” — a large-scale British show with substantial resources and a sizeable crew. Although it was framed by Channel 4 as part of a “Russia series,” the production itself was extensive and ambitious.
I also worked on Abandoned Engineering — the Pripyat episode produced by the UK-based company Like A Shot. The project featured exceptional aerial cinematography, although it does not currently exist in an online version.
A particularly significant engineering documentary was Building Chernobyl Megatomb produced for BBC Four and PBS. The crew followed the construction of the New Safe Confinement arch over an extended period.
VICE’s visit to the Zone for VICE on HBO was originally pitched by me and produced with journalist Jake Hanrahan — one of the few VICE projects to gain meaningful access at the time.
Other notable projects include “Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys”, which required long preparation and an intense, tightly scheduled shoot.
On several occasions, I have also worked on camera as a guide and presenter. My first visit to Chernobyl was with a Ukrainian television program for New Channel, where I served as both host and director. The segment from the Zone begins at 34:38 and includes access to iconic buildings as well as interaction with local residents.
I also greatly enjoyed working with Belgian crews, whose visual style and storytelling sensibility resonate strongly with my own interest in Flemish Late Medieval and Renaissance art. I remain particularly proud of my collaboration with Tom Waes and the VRT team on Reizen Waes. Beyond filming, we shared moments such as tasting locally produced pickles — and, more importantly, Tom was able to emotionally grasp the essence of the Zone.
Another on-camera project involved the Chinese conglomerate Tencent, for which I pitched and self-produced three separate stories. One featured Academician Anatoly Nosovsky, one of the first nuclear scientists to enter the disaster site. The experience shaped not only his career but his emotional life — something he later expressed through poetry.
I also produced an intimate story about a Chernobyl town inhabitant who continued working in the Zone after the disaster.
As an on-camera guide, my role often involved seemingly simple actions: carrying a Geiger counter, demonstrating radiation levels in places that appear completely ordinary, and explaining the invisible realities of the environment.
One particularly rare project for Bloomberg’s Quick Take involved Viktor Ivkin — one of the very few Chernobyl Power Plant employees who was inside Reactor 4 at the time of the explosion. We arranged for his return to what had once been his workplace, where he recounted the events of the night of April 26, 1986.
There are several printed pieces including one book that I’ve been happy to help with. E.g. Andrew Blackwell’s Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places, RFERL’s photo reports which brought me in as a character of one of the segments when a big Geiger counter started signaling at my exit from the Zone. British daily The Sun reporting at the increase of the number of visits due to HBO’s Chernobyl series.
There have also been several print projects, including one book, that I was pleased to contribute to. These include Andrew Blackwell’s Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places, as well as photo reports for RFE/RL. In one of those segments, I unexpectedly became part of the story myself when a Geiger counter began signaling after I exited the Exclusion Zone — apparently after I had unknowingly picked up radioactive dust on a camera lens during filming.
I have also assisted with coverage by the British daily The Sun, which reported on the rise in visitor numbers following HBO’s Chernobyl series.
Another story produced at Chernobyl was with Dutch RTL4’s great Jeroen Akkerman’s was produced under the confinement. A place which not that many media outlets got under.
Additional work includes collaborations with journalist Tom Webb fron SAR who has filmed for Carte Blanche investigative series at increased tourism to the Zone. One story explored lessons from Chernobyl in the context of Earth’s sixth mass extinction — Lessons from Chernobyl for Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction.
Another focused on Chernobyl Babushka re-settler Mariya, a lovely and beloved elderly self-resettler — nearly 100 years old — who returned to live in the Exclusion Zone, raising chickens and producing local potato vodka (horilka).
Long before HBO’s dramatization brought global attention, journalist Henry Ridgwell of VOA produced multiple stories inside the Zone with my assistance, focusing on the human dimensions of this man-made catastrophe.
For international media, Chernobyl is often the first point of access to Ukraine. It is a story that feels familiar, globally recognized, and visually compelling. But once inside, it inevitably opens onto something larger.
The Exclusion Zone is not only about radiation or abandonment — it is about how trauma is lived with, adapted to, and carried forward. In that sense, Chernobyl provides a framework for approaching Ukraine’s more complex and painful stories with the depth and sensitivity they require. Entering the Exclusion Zone often becomes a way of beginning to understand Ukraine itself — a country shaped by repeated historical shocks, long-term consequences, and the quiet persistence of those who continue to live with the aftermath. Seen this way, Chernobyl is not only a past disaster, but a key to approaching Ukraine’s ongoing, complex, and deeply human story.