The Kazakhstani documentary “We Live Here” unravels a story of criminal negligence or is it state manslaughter?
Between 1949-1991 over 456 nuclear tests were conducted by the USSR in a test site area on the Kazakhstani steppes covering an area of 18,300 square kilometers, roughly the size of Israel. Open air testing ceased in 1963 but continued until ended in 1991 by presidential decree and the fall of the U.S.S.R.
We hear from a few of its 1,500,000 victims who have lost family members and friends or are in the process of losing 3rd and 4th generation family members to radioactive caused illness. The scientists conduct frequent testing and the radioactive danger remains. It will take the plutonium some 24,440 years to decay.
There has been no governmental cleanup, resettlement, compensation or cordoning off severely contaminated areas. Cattle and horses continue to graze and crops continue to be cultivated on contaminated soil further condemning consumers of meat and dairy products to a shorter life span.
The story is beyond sorrowful and disgraceful and should be condemned as state criminal negligence as a minimum if not manslaughter. The establishment of negligence requires Russia as successor in title to the U.S.S.R. and Kazakhstan to have had a duty of care to the victims, failure to maintain that standard of care and as a result the victims suffered harm which is clearly the case here. The extent of the negligence is clearly criminal.
A very well paced documentary with gaps in dialogue where cattle and horses grazing, twisted wreckage, pockmarked landscape and grieving parents silently suggest the horror. Unfortunately there is no exploration of the responsibility, if any, Russia has taken for this historical and much unknown blot of callousness staining humanity.
The North American premiere of “We Live Here” is at Toronto Hot Docs 2/4May2025.
A documentary by Zhanana Kurmasheva.
RKS 2025 Documentary Rating 76/100.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 