Dark Tourism

Exploring the Post-Apocalypse

- Lara Lee

Three decades ago, Chernobyl was the site of one of the biggest nuclear disasters in history. Today, it is becoming a destination for adventurers and explorers.

The tension between those two facts is what struck me when I first visited the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the 30-km radius around the Chernobyl power plant that was evacuated in the wake of the explosion. At the time I made my trip, in 2017, I had no intention of creating a film about my experience. However, what I found in the zone--a burgeoning culture of adventure tourism at the spot of a deadly historical event--captivated me. And it eventually became the basis of my documentary, Stalking Chernobyl: Exploration After Apocalypse. Some thirty years after the nuclear disaster, forests and wildlife have taken over again in places that humans abandoned. And people, too, have started to return. Some are thrill-seekers. Some are artists. Some are scientists. I wanted to document what they are finding in the Exclusion Zone and their fascination with the post-apocalyptic. Of course, hanging over all these are critical environmental and human rights concerns, related to humanity’s appetite for risk and propensity for self-destruction. Under the surface of a film about adventure travel, I wanted to probe these issues.

Is It Worth the Risk?

Since the film’s premiere in March, I have hosted a number of virtual discussions about Stalking Chernobyl. One of the most common questions that I’ve heard during these events is, “Is the Exclusion Zone really safe?” It’s a straightforward inquiry, but the answer varies greatly depending on who you ask. Different experts have wildly different views.