Laughing Owl: After the Apocalypse

Somewhere 60 years ago, Kazakh steppes witnessed the phenomenon it never encountered before. The tests of nuclear weapon which took place in the wide and open steppes of Saryarka will reverberate throughout the generations for many years to come. The sacred land where Abay and Shakarim, two brightest geniuses of Kazakh poetry were born and lived has become a polygon for ambitious Soviet Union to test its potential to wage the war. The war, which never happened and yet huge layers of Kazakh population were sacrificed. Though too few could predict at that time what tragedy it would bring upon people in the future. Somewhere 60 years and over 460 explosions after, a historic decision has been taken by the President of independent Kazakhstan to close the polygon.
Then, some ordinary day a British guy came to one of the remote villages located around the polygon to explore the lives of its inhabitants. That’s where the real story begins.Sarzhal is fairly unknown for wider public both within and outside of Kazakhstan. It is pretty small village located 300 km away from Semipalatinsk. Once it was famous for its production of kumis (mare’s milk), it is no longer. It has now other things to be famous for. The village is well known for being the closest to the actual polygon site. There are more than enough evidences to that, some inhabitants of the village still bear the physical proof of the radiation on their bodies. It can be no more explicit than that. The British guy hit the jackpot, when he discovered an extraordinary family as such, who could tell him more about the decease that hit them and still continues doing so. He stayed with them, lived with them, befriended the local farmers and shepherds, shared food with them, took their pictures...and filmed. That’s how After the Apocalypse was born. The film turned out to be complicated and challenging. Before leaving he made a promise to those people in Sarzhal that film will never be broadcasted in Kazakhstan, the very land the entire tragedy took place. The story is pretty simple and short.
A woman wants to give birth to a child who is suspected to be born with Down’s syndrome and genetically deceased. The entire documentary revolves around the debate about whether Bibigul should have her second child or not. But this simple argument between the nature’s power and grim medical diagnosis turns into something indeed apocalyptical. It is not only the question about life and death, but carries much more sinister message for the future generations to be born in those contaminated steppes.
What man can deny life? If the baby could have its say would he or she choose the normal life or that of disabled? What mother can deny life? So many questions to which humankind is yet to find the answers. Bibigul has not much of a life except the wilderness of the steppes, small household and few horses. She and her husband work for village officials in kystak (a temporary place to spend the winter) which does not even belong to them, about 6 km away from Sarzhal. The road is bad and muddy, not every car can pass through. Ancient nomadic way of life rules here. They are being paid, of course, but only to sustain their current way of life. They are afraid of every coming visitor, believing it might be someone of a higher hierarchy who came to check up on them. They do not go frequently neither to Sarzhal, nor to Semipalatinsk. Basically they are isolated from the rest of the world.
However Bibigul’s world is not too small to accommodate and welcome another future member of the family. Her heart is open so far. She and her mother have been haunted by the ghosts of the nuclear deformation since they can remember themselves. Those courageous women have their own dignity and are fully capable of protecting their privacy. The family cannot afford the most basic things, such as medicine for Bibigul and the newborn baby, clothes, proper food and vitamins, medical care, let alone anything else. That is the reason why she could have never made it to Almaty to do the prenatal check up to figure out whether it is worth giving birth to... That is the reason, she speaks so harshly and bitterly about her own and baby’s health. That is the reason, why she would never go out of her kystak and find out that there is so much fuss going on about her and her baby. She barely knows what an internet is. She probably does not know where the United Kingdom is located. She has her own kingdom of small simple things and tasks such as tending to horses, taking care after her family and all the rest of household chores. Ersayin is now one year and a half. He cannot walk, he cannot crawl, and yet he seems to be taller than normal child of his age. He has almost all of his teeth in place. He cannot speak too. In Kazakh, Ersayin means a strong warrior or brave hero. It is very beautiful and rare name.
The film poses the question in the end: after 6 months Bibigul’s baby...is supposed to be normal as everyone who watched it hope. But what is normal? Is it normal at all to live in conditions described above? Is it normal to live in a constant fear of...indeed...what? Is it normal that state allows something like this to happen? The story of Bibigul transcends all possible boundaries of human misery and humiliation. She is there. Her Ersayin is there as well. They are both full-fledged members of Kazakh society and yet they are somehow out of it. The discussion may lead us further into the depths unknown. It is highly contested whether the documentary highlighted all the aspects of it.
The most importantly after a year and a half nothing had ever changed for Bibigul and her little family. Should it have changed? Was it most importantly the purpose of the After the Apocalypse?
British media got actively involved into the debate about what should we all do with letting unhealthy mothers to give birth to disabled children. Many talks focused upon an evil legacy left by Soviet Union and its nuclear tests. Was it the film’s purpose? Kazakhstan has learned its lesson, and declared itself to be the first ever nation, to renounce nuclear weapon. Was it enough? The film points out not only to the long vanished Soviet Union, it has its own message also to those nations who posess, retain and expand their nuclear storages. It contains the message to the entire free world to think twice before going there where Kazakhstan once found itself. Would you like to know what it might feel like to be Bibigul?