Connecting with Chernobyl – ‘Everything Will Not Be Fine’ Doc Trailer

“I thought you were someone I could trust and share my life with.” Take a look at the official trailer for an indie documentary titled Everything Will Not Be Fine, a love story mixed with a story of self-discovery. The two directors of this personal documentary begin a relationship based on their separate struggles: Hers with backbone pain, his with a loss of vision as a result of the Chernobyl disaster 25 years before. Adrian was born in the year of the accident and his mother always believed that his partial blindness was caused by her visit to Ukraine while she was pregnant. Adrian is almost thirty – lonely and without a purpose. After his mother reveals the story of his birth, he decides to go to Ukraine to make a film about people affected by Chernobyl. In Kyiv, he meets Helena who grew up with the consequences of the disaster. Traveling together they find people who are dealing with the effects of what happened in 1986, but as they discover the scale of Chernobyl’s impact on a new generation, their health problems catch up with them. What a beautiful story, and their connection seems so powerful. It’s next playing at the IDFA Film Festival this month. Check it out.

Here’s the first trailer (+ poster) for Maksyom & Pirvu’s doc Everything Will Not Be Fine, on YouTube:

From IDFA: “A remarkably frank account of an attempt to get a grip on life. The first question is ‘When did it all start?’ With the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, perhaps? When it happened, Adrian Pirvu’s mother was nearby and pregnant with him. She believes that’s why he is almost blind in one eye. Adrian is lonely and angry, and he hopes to find purpose in his life before he turns 30. So he decides to make a film in Ukraine about other people affected by Chernobyl. That’s how he meets Helena, which turns his world upside down. A new beginning? Helena suffers from chronic pain, but she deals with her problems differently than Adrian. They fall in love. And the film—understated and straightforward, but appealingly direct—becomes a shared project. They meet other people who are grappling with the effects of the Chernobyl disaster, and they also turn the camera on each other. The film’s main focus, besides the struggle with their physical issues, is the matter of what it is that binds them and what stands in their way. It’s about happiness, love, and uncertainty. What do you need to stay together?” Everything Will Not Be Fine is co-directed by the doc film’s subjects Helena Maksyom & Adrian Pirvu, both making their first film. This just premiered at the Transilvania Film Festival in Romania, and it next plays the IDFA Film Festival in The Netherlands this fall.