The Russian Woodpecker

Fedor Alexandrovich is a Ukrainian artist who grew up with the radiation he was exposed to at four, in the Chernobyl accident. He starts investigating the cause of it on his own. His attention is caught by an enormous structure standing next to the plant: the Soviet radar array called Duga. The tapping heard for years across the world's shortwave band came from that radar; radio amateurs had named it the Russian Woodpecker. The conclusion Alexandrovich reaches is this: Duga cost billions of roubles and did not work, and the accident was caused deliberately to cover that failure up. This is a claim, not an established fact; that Duga did not work is documented, the sabotage part is not. Chad Gracia's film does not hide that and keeps Alexandrovich's own obsession inside the frame. The shooting continued through the Maidan events of 2014; at one point the cinematographer was afraid to go on. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.