"(An) often mesmerising tableau of a dance of death." - Screen International

Saturday April 26th, 1986. In the 36 hours following the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, Communist party member and white-collar worker Valery Kabysh has seen the panic of his superiors, and has learnt the fate of his town before anyone else.

He knows that every second counts, but every attempt to leave is undone, and as the disaster is revealed to everyone around him, he is sucked back into the comforts and delusions of his everyday life.

Shot by Oleg Mutu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, MIFF 2007), Innocent Saturday is no conventional disaster movie; instead it is a relentless, claustrophobic account of Chernobyl, a visceral exploration of a culture's ability for self-delusion and a questioning of how a community could continue everyday life knowingly in the face of nuclear catastrophe.

D/S Alexander Mindadze P Dmitri Efremov, Matthias Esche WS Bavaria Films L Russian w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2011