{"id":541,"date":"2011-06-08T13:49:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T13:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/?p=541"},"modified":"2011-06-17T19:20:13","modified_gmt":"2011-06-17T19:20:13","slug":"unter-kontrolle-under-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/?p=541","title":{"rendered":"Still in Control \u2013 or Under Control<\/em>?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Film still from Volker Sattel\u2019s Under Control, courtesy credo film<\/p><\/div>\n

Three years ago \u2013 before the ongoing Fukushima meltdown crisis following March\u2019s Japanese earthquake and the subsequent apocalyptic tsunami \u2013, Volker Sattel began work on <\/strong>Unter Kontrolle<\/em><\/strong> (Under Control) unaware of its burning topicality in Germany\u2019s particularly controversial debate about nuclear power. The documentary premiered in the <\/strong>Forum<\/em><\/strong> at the 2011 Berlinale and focuses on the \u203ahere and now\u2039 of the almost publicly suppressed artefacts of a \u00bbhi-tech\u00ab era which was so characteristic for the booming post-war decades in the developed countries of the Western hemisphere. It gives a unique insight into the strange world of the nuclear industry which will now be off-limits to the public eye for many years \u2013\u00a0because of Fukushima.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clearly timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster \u2013\u00a0still by far the worst nuclear power plant accident in history \u2013, Volker Sattel\u2019s \u00bbarchaeology of the atomic age\u00ab skillfully captures the daily working routines in these cathedrals populated by a predominantly male order in never-before-seen pictures which meticulously subvert the original statements of this nuclear high priest caste. They seem to have fallen out of time as their monstrous mega-complexes are caught in a 1970s time loop.<\/p>\n

The archaeological approach is evident when Sattel enters the pharaonic reactor core of Austria\u2019s Zwentendorf nuclear power plant which never came online because of a referendum. Today, the partly dismantled facility serves as a training centre for engineers and staff of Germany\u2019s nuclear power plant providers. Completely absurd and undermining the bright prospects for a future plutonium age are those scenes in the abandoned fast breeder reactor in Kalkar which has been turned into the \u00bbKern-Wasser Wunderland\u00ab fairground attraction with its spectacular, but outlandish carousel inside the gigantic ventilation stack chimney.<\/p>\n

This unforgettable imagery and the almost congenial atmospheric soundtrack of this strange world also show that Sattel has a clear eye for the pop-cultural iconography of science-fiction movie heritage \u2013 whether it is the deserted Kubrick-style mock-up control centres of the simulation centre in Essen, the post-doomsday images of demolished Chernobyl-type power plants in Eastern Germany, or \u2013\u00a0with a subtle sense of humour \u2013\u00a0the establishing dolly shot of a single nuclear fuel rod exhibit citing the famous opening in George Lucas\u2019 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope<\/em> (1977) when the literally never-ending Imperial Star Destroyer of Darth Vader come onto the scene.<\/p>\n

However, the enigmatic nuclear radiation isn\u2019t an invisible \u00bbPhantom Menace\u00ab: abstract traces of radiation are shot in an alcohol-saturated \u00bbfog chamber\u00ab, the beauty of the supernatural blue Cherenkov radiation and, finally, the flickering radiation striking the spectator. The end titles are underlain with film footage exposed in the radioactive core of a research facility. A unique, but eerie moment in film history when the film stock is seemingly converting itself into an intimidating source of hazard. Are we still in control \u2013 or under control?<\/p>\n

This review has been published in the recent print issue #100 of <\/em>KINO \u2013 German Film & International Reports<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago \u2013 before the ongoing Fukushima meltdown crisis following March\u2019s Japanese earthquake and the subsequent apocalyptic tsunami \u2013, Volker Sattel began work on Unter Kontrolle (Under Control) unaware of its burning topicality in Germany\u2019s particularly controversial debate about nuclear power. The documentary premiered in the Forum at the 2011 Berlinale and focuses on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714,"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phuturama.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}