BRATTLEBORO — The day after screening the powerful film The Babushkas of Chernobyl, I heard a story on public radio about the rewilding of the exclusion zone surrounding the remains of the Chernobyl nuclear complex. The researcher claimed with authority that there were no human inhabitants of the 30-mile zone, one of the most radioactive areas on the planet.
I was not surprised that the strong, stubborn, and nearly self-sufficient old women - approximately 100 of them -living for decades in the exclusion zone were unknown to those studying the animals populating the area.
They live scattered in the 2,600-square-kilometer zone, an area closed forever since the unthinkable explosion and meltdown at Chernobyl spread highly radioactive dust over many miles of woods, farmland, and small towns and cities.
Some of the women describe coming back into the zone covertly; they would or could not live in urban Kiev after a lifetime of rural, simple living.
The women discussed their lives of foraging plants, herbs, and animals for food and health, as well as growing crops. They all appeared to work hard and long hours, and they seemed strongly bonded to the land where they were born and where their ancestors lived and died. There are definitely moments of joy, especially when the women gather to drink, eat, and share stories.
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Government officials and scientists appear periodically to give some assistance and to study radiation levels, but all are limited in the amount of time they are allowed to spend in the zone. It is clear that the women are largely on their own.
The film gives us the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these women as they near the end of their lives. Although the radiation is odorless, colorless, and impossible to perceive, it is crystal clear that these are the last people who will ever live in this seemingly green and fertile country.