Our fifth day in the zone started with something I’d been relishing for many years. For the first time in so many trips beyond the fence of the exclusion zone, we came across a big herd of Przhevalsky horses. A few were brought here after the fallout as an experiment to see how they survive the effects of radiation. It is clear now that the invisible enemy has been no match for them, as they...

­The day started with a nasty surprise from above – we woke up in the morning to realize the Zone was covered in snow. It was green and sunny the day before, now it was all white. Pripyat snow ­The sunlight, which was creeping out along the horizon, suggested this was a temporary sight. And this made our first shooting location – a rather unpleasant one as it was – even harder to work at. We...

It kicked off at Pripyat’s post office – to tell you a secret, mail from the zone is part of the foundation of our documentary. Just as all other doors in the ghost town, the one of the post office was open for our crew. Post office after artillery shelling. Pay phone box – its interior probably taken by some scavenger. Rubble everywhere – a view one expects from a long-neglected building. Denis...

­After our first-ever sleepover in the contaminated zone, we were once again walking the empty streets of Pripyat, the ghost town right next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Some locations look almost normal. ­Every visit I’ve had to this sad place has brought me different emotions. It was a deep shock on the very first journey – it left me senseless for a couple of hours. The next few...

­We have filmed another documentary in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. This new project will tell the story of history’s worst manmade nuclear disaster through dialogue with a man exiled from his hometown of Pripyat. Over the course of a week spent inside the zone, we visited previously undiscovered parts of the deserted area. Our experience is shared in this blog. On our way there, myself and my...