Chernobyl 1986

Firefighter Alexei Karpushin, played by Kozlovsky himself, is an attractive young fireman who quits his job in Pripyat to move in with his former flame, Olga, in Kiev.

However, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant throws a wrench into his plans. He is forced to return to Pripyat, where he saves his comrades from the roof of the plant and opens the water valve beneath the reactor to prevent another explosion — while walking away nearly untouched by radiation.

Russian film critics have slammed the movie for focusing on a main character saving the day rather than depicting the true horror of the tragedy, calling it “more Hollywood” than the Hollywood version.

“Danila Kozlovsky’s new work is a melodramatic fantasy shot with the Chernobyl tragedy as its scenery,” Vera Alenushkina wrote in a TimeOut review.  “If the explosion at the ill-fated power unit is replaced, for example, by an accident in a Martian colony, then, with the exception of the filming location, costumes and surroundings, nothing in the film would change.”

Meduza film critic Anton Dolin called Koslovsky’s “Chernobyl” a movie where “the main character extinguishes the fire, drives an ambulance and dives under the reactor.”