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Metamorphosen by Sebastian Mez
DEU 2013, Perspektive Deutsches Kino
![](/media/filmstills/2013/perspektive/20130531_2_RWD_1380.jpg)
Metamorphosen by Sebastian Mez
DEU 2013, Perspektive Deutsches Kino
A winter landscape with figures in the southern Ural Mountains captured in high-contrast black-and-white. These images harbour an eerie beauty which, although it cannot be seen or heard, is nonetheless unmistakable. Flanking the course of the river Techa and extending some 23,000 square kilometres, this region is one of the most radioactively contaminated in the world. Regular daily use plus several major accidents at the nuclear plant Mayak, which has been operating in complete isolation from the rest of the world since 1948, have contaminated the water, the soil and the air in the region and exposed the people who live here to a permanent augmented radiation. Even more astounding is the fact that the local people were given no warning of the effects of radiation contamination following the disastrous chemical explosion of 1957. After Chernobyl and Fukushima, the Kyshtym accident is widely held to be the third worst disaster in the history of nuclear power. But today, 55 years after these apocalyptic events, the struggle of the people who live here is about more than just survival.
Additional information
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Laura Mahlberg, Sebastian Mez, Katharina Fiedler
The director of Kalifornia Laura Mahlberg with director Sebastian Mez and editor Katharina Fiedler of Metamorphosen.
Metamorphosen · Perspektive Deutsches Kino · Feb 07, 2013
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Sebastian Mez, Katharina Fiedler, Renata Kosenko, Linda Söffker
The director talking to his cinematographer and his directing assistant and translator, moderated by the Section Director. His documentary is about the area surrounding the Majak nuclear reactor in the southern Urals, site of the world's third worst nuclear accident which took place in 1957.
Metamorphosen · Perspektive Deutsches Kino · Feb 11, 2013