Create Not a Handful of Ashes

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Description: A striking film on the futility of nuclear war. It examines the medical and genetic consequences of nuclear war, including powerful footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the devastating consequences for the environment. Contains some footage of experiments on animals and burn victims.
Duration: 48 mins 36 secs
Director: L. Udovenko.
Producer: G. Shevelenko.
Credits: [Original Russian text read by Innokenty Smoktunovsky]. Script: E. Shafransky. Camera: N. Mandrych. Chief Consultant: E. Velikhov (Vice President of SSSR), Academician E. Velikhov. Consultants: L. Feokistov (Member-Correspondent of the SSSR): M. Shandala (Member-Correspondent of AMN); V. Orel (Master of Economic Science). Editor: V. Melnikov. Sound: I Moizhes. Illustrations: V. Dikareva. Special effects photography: N. Shevchuk. Special effects artist: A. Dachenko. Music: T. Dikarev. Poems: John Donne. Musical selections: Yu. Pazarevskaya Montage: E. Dudikov Assistant directors: B. Boiko, E Patsan. Assistant camera: M. Avrutsky, O. Kovach Administrator: A. Litovsky.
Year: 1987
Subjects: Nuclear warfare, War devastated countries, Nuclear weapons, International tensions, War victims, Nuclear safety, Experiments, Radioactive pollution, Nuclear power stations, Laboratory animals
Segment 1: Credits. Bells in bell tower. Man playing organ. Views in Kiev. Title. Drawings depicting the plane that dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, artistic impressions of the devastation caused. Kiev, commentary states the present day threat of atomic war and a recent explosion. Hiroshima, ceremony remembering the atrocity. Mushroom cloud.
Segment 2: International conference in USSR, Chairman of the Soviet Scientists for Peace and Against the Nuclear Threat states that aim of scientists is to stimulate and show what would happen in the event of a nuclear war. Computers and technical equipment. Aerial pan over devastated Hiroshima, fuzzy B/W image. Multiple television screens, showing the crew and other personnel with Little Boy and other bombs. B/W street scenes pre and post bomb.
Segment 3: Street scenes (probably USSR), image mirrored. USSR conference, Chairman of Soviet Scientists for Peace and Against the Nuclear Threat giving speech. Commentary discusses the propaganda released by the United States justifying the dropping of the bombs as another form of human conflict and past international view of how such events can lead to mankind emerging stronger, and the consequences on health exaggerated. Computer graphic demonstrating modern nuclear conflict and statistics (Cyrillic onscreen text) given. Swinging pendulum with image of bride and groom. Full screen bride and groom, shop windows, commentary asks why people cannot comprehend the impact of nuclear war. Statement given by corresponding member of the Academy of Medicine, he calls for international cooperation to ensure peace. Footage of conference. Street scenes, happy families.
Segment 4: Chernobyl disaster. Child's doll in window. Aerial of the town Prybirsk in the Kiev district. Aerial shots of Chernobyl plant and surrounding countryside. Commentary states that the disaster acted as a wake-up call and confirmed that nuclear war is impermissible. Statement from corresponding member of the Academy L.P. Feokistov. Interior of a plane, scientific equipment and personnel on board. Aerial and zoom in to Chernobyl site. Clean up operation. Discussion on how choice of targets can determine the kind of war that follows. Paradox of developed countries - the more sophisticated and complex its objectives and technology the more vulnerable it becomes. Interior shots of control room and machinery.
Segment 5: Wall of television screens - tests and experiments, footage of animals in distress. The Chairman of 'Soviet Scientists for Peace and Against the Nuclear Threat' discusses the problem of 'professionals' with military and political ambition but not the wisdom to back it up. Montage of military personnel and training, mushroom clouds and warheads on bank of television screens. "What will this strange war be like?" HG Well's 1913 vision is discussed with surreal, black and white illustrations.
Segment 6: Graduation ceremony for doctors at Lumumba Friendship University, oath taken. Bank of television screens, montage of people injured by Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, some modern footage. Street scenes. Blossoms. B/W Japanese theatre. Stills - Japanese actress survivor of Hiroshima bomb, escaped but died a few days later.
Segment 7: Japan - lanterns floating on water - fuzzy footage. Swinging pendulum, sunny park in pendulum. Sculptures in park, quote from Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. Computer graphics displaying lethal dose of radioactivity for living organisms, humans most vulnerable. Rocky coastline. Illustration depicting death and destruction. Professor John (Joseph) Rotblat discusses the effects of nuclear radiation on humans, and how new information suggests that effects are worse than first thought. Computer graphics show affected areas. Soviet academician talks about his experiments on the medical and biological consequences of a thermonuclear war, footage of experiments on rats. Computer graphics illustrate results - effects on humans, global fallout. Soviet academician N.P. Bochkov speaks about effects of radiation on man's hereditary traits. Models of deformed babies illustrate effects of radiation.
Segment 8: School children throw letters in bottles in the sea. Abstract illustrations. Ruins of bomb shelters. Commentary discusses HG Wells' thoughts, that the "day the atom was split, the world...was becoming indivisible, and all attempts to divide the world through hostility leads to inevitable disintegration". Bank of television screens, nuclear explosions and mushroom clouds, commentary gives statistical information about the quantity of explosives. Comparison of extreme weather conditions to nuclear explosion, footage of natural phenomena. Erupting Tambora volcano in Indonesia, led to "the year without a summer" due to dust clouds. Corresponding member G.S. Golitsyn describes why comparison of nuclear war and volcanoes is futile. Consequences of smoke fall out and questions that arise, footage of experiments and laboratories. Ontario Canada, 3 August 1985, controlled forest fire to see effects of smoke fall out.
Segment 9: Professor Warner, president of International Scope Committee speaks about profound climate change. Equipment to predict weather forecast for world after nuclear war. Soviet academician N.N. Moiseyev talks about previous experiments conducted. Computer graphics of effects on weather in globe post nuclear war, nuclear night and winter are discussed. Atomic submarine. School children at play, commentary describes how people will die.
Segment 10: Television screen, quickly edited sequence of war heads being launched, explosions etc. Full screen image of US missile being launch. Commentary describes the initiation of Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) programme in 1983, its plan and construction. Soviet academician B.V. Raushenbach talks about problems with the SDI system, especially problems with computers. 1986 Challenger disaster as illustration of computer failure. Quickly edited sequence of missiles being launched, similar to above: "defence systems can be used at offensive systems". Soviet academician R.Z. Sagdeyev calls for the destruction of nuclear weapons. Quote from HG Wells, abstract illustrations. Rooms in the Hermitage art gallery, and paintings including Da Vincis.
Segment 11: Still HG Wells. Painting of Lenin with Wells, meeting in September 1920 in the Kremlin. Discussed the peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems. Sculptures in park. July 1986 meeting with Gorbachev and scientists for a stop to nuclear testing. Group of people standing outside church. Church bells. Drawings of ravaged faces. Town scenes. Swinging pendulum, images of churches, buildings, statues (including St Petersburg Sphinx), being washed away. Credits. End.
Persistent URL: http://edina.ac.uk/purl/isan/0002-0000-2643-0000-0-0000-0000-0
Written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Subject classification by University of Edinburgh Library © 2006