Nuclear Societies Research Group
Nuclear Societies Research Group
Decommissioning a Dream is a short documentary film set in the Lithuanian border town of Visaginas – a planned town built to house the workers and builders of the Ignalina II nuclear power plant. The plant is currently being dismantled, in many cases by its former builders and their descendants.
Situated near the Latvian and Belarusian borders, the Ignalina twin-reactor plant had big ambitions, and would, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, have secured energy independence for Lithuania. However the idea of a Soviet-built nuclear power plant in the heart of Europe that shared the same RBMK reactor technology as the ill-fated Chernobyl proved unpalatable for Brussels, and Ignalina II’s decommissioning became a central condition of Lithuania’s accession to the European Union.
The impact of the plant’s closure on the town of Visaginas became the subject of Laurie Griffiths and Jonty Tacon’s photographic study and Leila Dawney’s ethnographic research in 2014-16. As the team immersed themselves in the community of Russian-speaking nationals who lived there – many of them current and former workers at the plant – and gained access to the power station itself, a picture of loss, pride, community and fractured identity emerged.
Decommissioning a Dream has been shortlisted at Brighton Rocks! Film Festival, UK, Uranium Film Festival, Brazil and Germany, and Nida Photographic Festival, Lithuania.
Credits
Directed, edited and produced by Laurie Griffiths and Jonty Tacon
Original Music Score by Luke Thomas
Academic Advisor by Leila Dawney
Cinematography by Laurie Griffiths, Jonty Tacon and Sam Risley