A film about the amateur photographer Ihor Kostin starts out in his apartment where he is giving an interview to his documentary filmmaking friends. Kostin began to shoot in the Chornobyl zone almost immediately after the accident. Two hours after the explosion, he was the first to photograph the destroyed reactor and ruptured concrete shield (nicknamed “Elena” by the liquidators) from a helicopter. Kostin was also one of the so-called “bio-robots” that cleaned the roof of the third energy block from radioactive wreckage. His Chornobyl series became the first testimony of the aftermath of the disaster to be further showcased in prominent publications around the world and ultimately received World Press Photo awards. The photo album which Kostin showed to his interviewers in the film would be published only in 2002 under the title “Chornobyl: confession of a reporter”. Glimpsing into the life and work of Ihor Kostin, the film demonstrates the scale of the tragedy and also personifies it. The “zone” in the film is something disturbing and dangerous, but also familiar and exciting.