THE ZONE: A POST ATOMIC JOURNEY

There’s a new risky activity going on among Ukrainian youngsters: some of them in fact have recently started to illegally enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – in the centre of which there is the infamous Reactor 4 that exploded in 1986, making the area one of the most contaminated of the whole world.

They are referred to as “Stalkers” a name coming directly from Andrei Tarkovski’s film “Stalker”, a cult movie dated back in 1979 . Chernobyl’ Stalkers have developed a proper veneration for this specific area, which they consider it as a post-atomic private home. They are organized in paramilitary groups with names, symbols and rituals, while enjoying a dangerous trip to reach their final destination: the ghost town of Prypiat.
In order to get there, they have to walk about 60 kilometers through the woods – mostly by night to avoid the police patrolling – between nuclear radiations and wild animals. During their journey they usually sleep in abandoned villages, eat canned food and drink the water they find along the way, dirty and contaminated.