2007. 50 minute documentary.


The power of the image is transforming nuclear waste into a ground for resistance.

Photographer and twofold World Press Photo award winner Robert Knoth travelled through regions of the former Soviet Union that are contaminated by nuclear installations. From his journey he created an exhibition that has been travelling around the world for years now, visiting over eighty places and being covered by BBC and CNN. 'Fallout: the human cost of nuclear catastrophe' is making a difference in how people perceive the dangers of nuclear energy. When the inhabitants of Russian town Kazan saw the photos they resisted the building of a nearby nuclear plant. The construction was eventually cancelled.

Knoth's exhibition shows images of deserted villages and everyday life in radioactive ruins. It shows nine-year-old Sergey, who has cerebral palsy and has to spend his whole live in bed. His mother and grandmother have to nurse him 24 hours a day. Sergey is one of the millions of contaminated people whose descendants will suffer from health problems for the next two hundred generations.

Robert Knoth recently started a new project. He travels through the former colony of Algeria, where the French did their nuclear testing. His aim: to record the consequences of the Western nuclear developments.

Certificate no. 000358/ is a documentary about the horrors of nuclear industries and the frightening current developments in the world. But is also a picture of hope, arising from the effect of Knoth's images.