Film Screening: The Dogs That Survived

Screening with introduction by co-director, Jonathan Turnbull, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford

The Dogs that Survived (15 mins, 2023)
Directors: Nikita Zarkh, Jonathon Turnbull, Karolina Uskakovych, and Boris Krichevsky
Cinematographer: Denys Melnyk
Producer: Eugene Rachkovsky, TABOR production

Q&A moderated by Catherine Wanner, Professor of History, Anthropology and Religious Studies at Penn State University and Jacyk Distinguished Fellow at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

IN-PERSON ONLY

About the Film

Following the Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe of 26th April 1986, residents within a 30km Exclusion Zone were forced to evacuate and instructed to leave their pet animals behind. Most did so, setting out food and water, believing the authorities who said they would return within a few days. Permission to return, however, was revoked. Their cats and dogs were forced to roam the exclusion zone in search of companionship, food, and water. Later, Soviet soldiers were sent to kill the remaining animals to prevent the spread of radiation. 

Today, the Zone is home to around 550 dogs, descendants of those abandoned in 1986. They live in small packs at checkpoints around the Zone where they are fed, sheltered, and cared forby workers. The Dogs that Survived tells the story of a couple, Serhii and Lena, who live in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, caring for the dogs that roam this post-nuclear wilderness.

When Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Zone was occupied for five weeks before being liberated. During the occupation, images of emaciated dogs werebroadcast by workers at the power plant who were unable to feed them. Despite a lack ofsustenance, however, this period also saw the birth of several new litters. Since liberation, the dogs have begun to receive care again. 

The film depicts everyday life in the Zone from the perspective of dogs and their human companions. It explores the everyday human-animal relations that emerge after catastrophe, representing the endurance and resilience of human and other-than human beings in the face ofdisaster.

This Film Screening is part of a two-day workshop that will take place on 1-2 November 2023. More information about other included events:

Domesticating, Rewilding, Sacralizing: Modes of Engaging Nature in Everyday Life
Workshop papers presented online and in-person
Wednesday, November 1st at 10am - 5pm
Pritsak Memorial Library at HURI (seating is very limited)
https://huri.harvard.edu/event/engaging-nature-workshop-2023

Keynote Lecture by Kate Brown
The Soviet Everyday was Green! How urban farming restored the metabolic rift and fed the Soviet Union
Thursday, November 2nd at 5pm
Belfer Case Study Room (S-020), CGIS South 
https://huri.harvard.edu/event/engaging-nature-keynote-2023 (in-person only)

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This event is hosted by Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and organized by Catherine Wanner. It is co-sponsored by the Working Group on Lived Religion in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen and the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at HURI.

Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at duncansmith@fas.harvard.edu at least two weeks  in advance of the session.

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