[Reporter] It's eerie to look at
and even more incredible to think
that there was actually
more than one nuclear plant
like Chornobyl.
In fact, there are nine such reactors
just like the one that blew up
still operating.
Including four at a nearly identical plant
in Kurchatov, Russia.
And so, when Russian movie producers
decided to tell the story of the meltdown
and the catastrophic explosion
35 years ago
they filmed it
at Kurchatov's abandoned fifth reactor.
Their movie version of the disaster
has just opened across Russia
with a lot of red-carpet hype.
A blockbuster for the big screen
it stars Russian heartthrob Danila Kozlovsky
who plays the lead role and directed the film.
[Reporter] Of course, the American network HBO
got there first
with its critically-acclaimed mini-series
focusing on the lies
and cover-up of the accident.
But, producer Alexander Rodnyansky told us
Russians already know
the so-called Soviet state machine was rotten.
His story is about heroism.
Our story tells about how the normal people
the hostages of this machine
find themselves out
in a position to stop the disaster.
[Reporter] Many people who were part of the cleanup
the liquidators, as they were called
got special screenings.
Kozlovsky's character, a brave firefighter
was modelled in Nikolai Chebushev.
[Reporter] Chebushev told us
the movie was more fantasy than reality.
Without enough attention
to all the lies people were told.
[Reporter] Nina Soloshenkova is haunted too.
Because she realizes that
she was part of that cover-up.
Her job was to preserve state secrets at Chornobyl
and that meant not telling anyone
how bad the radiation contamination was.
[Reporter] One of the most senior people
on the ground was Nicoli Tarakanov.
A Soviet general sent in to lead the cleanup.
[Reporter] In the HBO movie
Tarakanov's character is shown
assigning the liquidators
to their deadly tasks.
He finds it painful to talk about now.
[Reporter] The things the Russian film omits
enrage him.
That sense of betrayal from Soviet authorities
for taking shortcuts with safety
that Russia's government would later
cut the liquidators' pensions
and the inescapable guilt he feels
about sending so many people to their doom.
[Reporter] It is of course a movie
not a documentary.
But the Chornobyl survivors we talked to
also said focusing just on heroism
is a convenient way to escape accountability.
Natalia Krukova works
at the Kurchatov power plant
and she was an extra during the filming.
She believes a Russian movie
about the lie has to be made.
[Reporter] The legacy of Chornobyl
remains intensely complicated
and politically sensitive for Russia.
That there were many heroes
in the aftermath
maybe one of the few things
everyone can agree on.
Chris Brown, CBC News, Moscow.