Special Operation
DUTCH PREMIERE
When Russian forces occupied the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant at the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its CCTV cameras continued recording. Built entirely from this footage, Special Operation transforms surveillance images into evidence of nuclear terror.
The Chornobyl Zone was occupied by Russian troops on 24 February 2022, in the opening hours of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They turned the territory of the Nuclear Power Plant into a military base in an attempt to occupy the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, just 100 km away. The Russian plan was to stay in Chornobyl for just three days, believing that would be enough time for Ukraine’s downfall. Instead, they were stuck at the radioactive site for five weeks, only to see their army collapse in the battle for Kyiv. Most of their criminal activities during this period had been captured by the plant’s CCTV system, which they had failed to disable. Built entirely from this footage, Special Operation is a forensic film where each shot is a piece of evidence of a Russian war crime in Ukraine.
SCREENINGS
Thursday 5 November 17:00
Sunday 8 November 15:00
Producer Lyuba Knorozok will be present for a Q&A on 8 November
Programme section(s): Docs Open Debates
Original title: Спеціальна операція | Year: 2025 | Runtime: 65′
Country: Ukraine, Lithuania | Language: Ukrainian, Russian | Subtitles: English
Director: Oleksiy Radynski | Production: Lyuba Knorozok – Kinotron Group; Studija Kinema | Screenplay: Oleksiy Radynski | Editing: Taras Spivak, Oleksiy Radynski | Sound: Vladimir Golovnitsky
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
Berlin International Film Festival, 2025 – World Premiere (Forum Expanded) | DokuFest International Documentary and Short Film Festival, 2025 | Riga International Film Festival, 2025 – Special Mention | Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 2025 | Tempo Documentary Festival, 2026
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Oleksiy Radynski is a filmmaker and writer based in Kyiv. His films experiment with documentary forms and the practices of political cinema. They have been screened at film festivals and exhibitions worldwide such as International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Taipei Biennial, Sheffield Doc Fest, DOK Leipzig. His film Chornobyl 22 (2023) won the Grand Prix at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
In the film, we observe the activities of Russian troops that are occupying the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, putting the world on the brink of another catastrophe. At the core of this film is an idea to let this footage speak for itself, editing the story based on long shots which represent the criminal activities of Russian troops in an uninterrupted, non-manipulative way. My aim is to put the film’s audience in a position of an immediate witness of an act of nuclear terror.
