Zvizdal

It is April 26 1986 when the lives of the people in and around the city of Pripyat take a drastic turn when a reactor explodes in a failed nuclear test. Residents of about 90 villages are evacuated and are forced to leave all their possessions behind. Except Pétro and Nadia from the small village of Zvizdal. The couple, now in their 80s, refuse to leave and remain in their old village. Zvizdal shows how the couple, under the pressure of a self-imposed loneliness, survives in a contaminated zone without running water, electricity, telephone or mail and. Only humour keeps them straight.    

“It's about a deep connection to a place. That makes it distressing when you have to leave. We will not reveal the fate of Nadia and Pétro.” – Yves Degryse from BERLIN.    

Between 2011 and 2016, BERLIN regularly travelled to Chernobyl to spend time with Pétro and Nadia, interviewing them and following their lives and choices. We become silent witnesses of the last years of the special couple. There is the superstition, the vodka, the muttering, the swearing, the singing, the toothache, the ailments of old age, the 20 kilometer walk to the shop, the waiting for someone from civilization, but also the slow erosion of the village and the disappearance of a way of life.  

BERLIN likes to tinker with fact and fiction, as in their acclaimed True Copy and The Making of Berlin. “Sometimes we get the question 'Is Zvizdal real?' Yes, it was not staged on a meadow at Wuustwezel. We have also come to regard Nadia and Pétro as grandparents.”    

In 2016, the acclaimed Zvizdal by BERLIN, welcome guests of Boulevard, could already be seen during the festival. This year, they return with a reprise of the performance.    

Directeur-bestuurder Tessa Smeulers: “Dit is een van die voorstellingen die ik nooit meer vergeet, het is altijd blijven kleven, de beelden hebben zich in mijn hoofd genesteld, het verhaal heeft zich in mijn hart genesteld. Een liefdevol en hoopgevend verhaal, zo treffend en respectvol vastgelegd door BERLIN.”

Director Tessa Smeulers: "This is one of those performances I will never forget, the images have nestled in my head, the story has nestled in my heart. A loving and hopeful story, so aptly and respectfully captured by BERLIN."

In BERLIN's Zvizdal, a flash of light occurs, which can have the same effect as stroboscopic lights.