City 40 (2016) on Netflix

NR20161h 12mDocumentary History

The closed Russian city of Ozyorsk, City 40, keeps thousands of residents behind barbed-wire fences and armed guards. Hidden cameras and interviews show the nuclear contamination around them.

Netflix3.3/5
IMDb6.5/101,606 votes
Rotten TomatoesNot available

Plot summary

In Russia's Chelyabinsk Oblast lies the closed city of Ozyorsk, code-named City 40. Thousands of residents live behind barbed-wire fences and armed guard posts, with better access to groceries than people outside. The city sits near Mayak, where the Soviet nuclear weapons effort began and the Kyshtym disaster occurred. Hidden cameras and interviews describe how radioactive waste from Mayak was dumped into Lake Irtyash and the Techa River, leaving the area among the most polluted on Earth. Attorney Nadezhda Kutepova speaks about residents affected by radiation.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about City 40 (2016)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

While making City 40, director Samira Goetschel and her crew stayed in a sanitarium outside Ozersk and tried to make contact with residents to gain access. Both the crew and the residents who spoke with them were under risk of death.