This is supposedly a documentary about a Ukrainian named Fedor who discovers that the Chernobyl disaster was in fact no accident. The "hero" of the movie, an eccentric and somewhat "touched" young artist, tries (along with a few friends) to find the true cause of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, then plans to expose it to the world. After they painstakingly attempt to prove the explosion was a plot by one Soviet official who needed to save his skin after investing enormous government funds in a failed Cold War project, they suddenly jump to the conclusion, completely unfounded even in the context of their own "research", that Chernobyl was a Soviet-engineered Ukrainian genocide. Then, when Fedor secretly confides to his friend that the secret police are going to hurt his family if he continues with the project; his friend secretly records the conversation and includes it in the movie. One might first wonder what kind of friend would subject a person close to him to repercussions by the secret police, but in the context of the movie one is expected to forgive him as he is sacrificing Fedor for the greater good (telling the truth about the evil Russians). However, it makes a lot more sense if in fact the secret police never visited Fedor, and the scene was just made up to provide the most damning "proof" that Chernobyl was no accident to make the Russians look bad (they even state in the film that this is that ultimate proof, because if the secret police visit you to make you say something didn't happen, it clearly did). One might imagine that if the secret police, presented in the movie as a powerful and unscrupulous force, didn't want to the film made, they would have been much more effective and the viewer would never have seen it.
A more interesting layer of the film is the creation of the character Fedor, a Ukrainian holy fool in the tradition of Basil the Blessed and others whose words are believed to be from god, who are able to foresee the future, and who, from time to time, run around naked. Unfortunately this may be less an interesting artistic device and more a technique to allow the hero to make all sorts of claims without having to back them up with logic or proof. The most egregious of these claims, of which there are many, is that Russia is trying to start WWIII. In fact, inflammatory propaganda films like this one are themselves extremely dangerous, as they sow fear and misunderstanding between Russia and the West at a time when honesty, understanding, and levelheaded thinking are so critical.
Ultimately, the real conspiracy here may the attempt to pass off a fictional movie as a documentary. Unfortunately, if "The Russian Woodpecker" hadn't pretended to be a documentary, it would have been far more interesting aesthetically and far less troubling ethically. In fact, it is little more than an anti-Russian diatribe.
A more interesting layer of the film is the creation of the character Fedor, a Ukrainian holy fool in the tradition of Basil the Blessed and others whose words are believed to be from god, who are able to foresee the future, and who, from time to time, run around naked. Unfortunately this may be less an interesting artistic device and more a technique to allow the hero to make all sorts of claims without having to back them up with logic or proof. The most egregious of these claims, of which there are many, is that Russia is trying to start WWIII. In fact, inflammatory propaganda films like this one are themselves extremely dangerous, as they sow fear and misunderstanding between Russia and the West at a time when honesty, understanding, and levelheaded thinking are so critical.
Ultimately, the real conspiracy here may the attempt to pass off a fictional movie as a documentary. Unfortunately, if "The Russian Woodpecker" hadn't pretended to be a documentary, it would have been far more interesting aesthetically and far less troubling ethically. In fact, it is little more than an anti-Russian diatribe.