The Polygon

Co-directors Kimberley Hawryluk and Adam Schomer's eye-opening documentary sheds light on a Soviet state program that resulted in debilitating aftershocks. During the Cold War, the U.S.S.R. conducted nuclear tests in sparsely populated areas, one being the Polygon, which is located in Kazakhstan. Visiting the region to see how it has fared, Hawryluk talks to Bolat Baltabek, a grade school teacher who moved away during the initial tests and returned afterward to find dead livestock and a detonation-made lake, where young people would swim—until they died (the lake remains, but the townspeople avoid it). Underground testing has, in some ways, caused even more damage due to seepage not only into soil and streams, but also rivers that flow beyond the country's borders. According to Struan Stevenson, a former European parliamentary member for Scotland, the Soviet government knew exactly what it was doing, and appointed scientists to study the effects of radiation fallout on the population (he claims that “they were being used as human guinea pigs"). Saim Balmukhanov, chief radiologist with the Soviet Minister of Health, went to the area in the 1950s, and noted that rates of illness, including cancer and congenital defects, were two to three times higher than the national average. Although the tests finally ended in 1989, the damage had been done (Bolat lost his sister, brother, and son). And the collapse of the Soviet Union devastated the community economically once Russian interests pulled out. Since Polygon citizens have a shortened life expectancy, Bolat would like to see the pension age lowered. The filmmakers conclude with some practical ideas for making life more livable for these neglected people. Telling a tragic cautionary story, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)