The Tankograd documentary takes places many years after the Cold War. A young generation of Russians face a heavy legacy from the old USSR. Radioactive accidents, leaks and waste from the production of atomic bombs have made their city the most radioactively contaminated place on earth.
Curiously, the city also has one of Russia's most vibrant dance scenes.


Tankograd is a lyrical documentary film about a world-class modern dance company, whose young dancers love and find hope through the art of dance. Chelyabinsk city in Western Siberia is infamous for its extreme radioactive pollution and has unstable contaminated areas that are threatening to spill into the Arctic Sea.
It is a pending global environmental catastrophe.


The Tankograd documentary film examines the hopes and struggles of a young generation of Russians. Masha and Vova - the solo dancers - and the other colorful characters are trying to find meaning and expression in the art of dance in the dreary reality of New Russia.
The region's inhabitants have been exposed to radioactive contamination 20 times higher than Chernobyl.


The name Tankograd (Tank City) derives from the city's mass-production of Soviety weaponry and tanks for the Second World War.
It was the birthplace of the Soviet nuclear bomb.
Chelyabinsk expanded its nuclear production and went on to become one of the Societ secret cities during the cold war. During the 1950s and 1960s many severe nuclear accidents and spills occurred at the city's nuclear plant, Mayak, located just 50 miles north of the city center. Today the former nuclear missile factory operates as a storage facility for nuclear waste from Russia, USA, and Europe.


The Tankograd documentary is dedicated to all the Dancers of Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theater and Olga Pona.

Dance Dance Dance!

Boris