095328/Z/11/Z: After the Apocalypse

Project Summary:This award is to support the nationwide public premiere, followed by an interactive satellite discussion, of the documentary film After the Apocalypse. The film tells the story, in Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, of the battle between the boss of the city's maternity clinic – Dr Tolemkhan Nurmagambetov – and a pregnant local woman, Bibigul Balargazinova. The area has a higher than average level of birth defects – which the local people attribute to the fact that it was a nuclear test site in the 1950s. Dr Nurmagambetov believes these defects should be bred out of the population by the introduction of a “genetic passport”. He urges Bibigul, who appears to have some genetic condition, to have an abortion. She refuses. The film raises important issues about genetics and biomedical ethics.

Grant Holder:Mr Christopher Hird

Organisation:Dartmouth Films

Financial Year:2010/2011