Atomkraft Forever

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Nuclear Forever

Atomkraft Forever
Carsten Rau
German Competition 2020
Documentary Film
Germany
2020
94 minutes
French,
German
Subtitles: 
German Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing

This detailed and sober look at the issue of nuclear power begins where Germany is currently standing: with shutting it off. It’s precisely because the film is anything but alarmist that the alarming aspect of the situation becomes clear. The nuclear nightmare is not over; a safe final nuclear waste repository is not in sight. And yet, boosted by the coal phase-out, many people seem to see “clean” nuclear energy as an option again. The terror of climate change trumps the terror of the nuclear worst case scenario. A zero sum game.

Carsten Rau succeeds masterfully in calmly probing the heated controversy. He talks to people who live with and off nuclear power. Engineer, scientist or innkeeper, he very deliberately frames them all with the same mixture of seriousness and nonchalance. The story is told without dramatisation, but with stunningly “beautiful” images that make the fascination with this technology quite comprehensible. When hip French nuclear engineers finally try to join the front line of climate protesters, we realise how false the talk of an “unavoidable option” is and always has been. The portrait of a society emerges that walked into a blind alley with open eyes and is slowly coming to realise that with every step it takes it is moving further away from the exit.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Carsten Rau
Script
Carsten Rau
Cinematographer
Andrzej Krol
Editor
Stephan Haase
Producer
Hauke Wendler, Carsten Rau
Co-Producer
SWR Südwestrundfunk, NDR Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Sound
Augusto Castellano
Score
Ketan Bhatti, Vivan Bhatti
World Sales
Georg Gruber
Commissioning Editor
Kai Henkel, Timo Grosspietsch