Author's note: The following review was published on Spanish language in June 11th, 2019. It may content spoilers.
Shortly after finishing the series Game of Thrones after eight years of being on the air, in social networks like Twitter and Facebook begin to circulate the name of a miniseries that has not gone unnoticed at all around the world, specially in Russia and in Ukraine, the place where the 1986 tragedy occurred.
Chernobyl is a HBO production that recreates, step by step and point by point, the days before and after one of the most controversial nuclear disasters of the twentieth century, which claimed the lives of thousands of humans and animals. The cast, lead by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, and Emily Watson in their respective roles as chemist Valeri Legásov, minister Boris Scherbina and nuclear physicist Ulama Khómyuk, makes a formidable display of acting; Harris, Watson and Skarsgard undoubtedly achieved a tense body dialogue with which they pretended to represent the governmental discourse and ethical - moral discourse on how the truth could affect not only the reputation of a nation but also incompetence or lack of preparation in a situation of danger at continental level.
The scenarios, identical to those of the Chernobyl's Zone of Exclusion, transport you to the moments where the accident occurs and the events that happened later.
The narrative keeps you on the edge of your seat, since the subject and its respective subtopics belong to the recent history of the 20th century; a delicate issue that, even after 33 years, continues to be a wound in the collective memory through various forms, especially in the field of health. However, it is pertinent to note that the narrative reflects certain artistic freedoms for dramatic purposes; those freedoms originated, in a certain way, a series of reactions in Russia that went from the praise to approach a very delicate subject to the shame and the indignation by pointing out (in)directly to the government as the main culprit of the disaster.
It would be interesting to see the Russian version that, it is supposed, would start filming this year as a response to the (not so) subtle accusation excerpted in the miniseries. It would not hurt to know the other side of the coin.
