Translated into English as "Collapse" or "Disintegration", RASPAD is much more than a chronicle of the Chernobyl accident. In it, producer-director-coscreenwriter Mikhail Belikov aims to document a country's entire moral, social, political, and economic disintegration. There are scores of concise and telling details here, from the small (Alexander has forgotten to bring a requested packet of soil from Greece, the homeland of his father, and so he fools the old man with some backyard dirt), to the medium (Ludmilla lies to Alexander about her affair; Valerii and Lyuba have bribed an official to send a relative to an old-age home so that they can take over their small, shared apartment), to the large (government officials tell Alexander there is no danger, then head their limos to the airport for the next flight out). Belikov reserves his greatest scorn for his own profession: the media--in the aftermath of the explosion, the TV channels (seen throughout the film) continue to carry only a marathon bicycle race.
