1989

Institute History

Description

Based on true events

In the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Malin, a Russian literature professor at the University of Havana, is separated from his family and job when he is assigned to work as a translator between Cuban doctors and children arriving from the USSR to receive medical treatment for radiation poisoning. Torn from the abstract world of academia and forced into the relentlessly real world of medicine, Malin must find ways to cope in order to stop his growing depression.

Just as he begins to adapt to his new job and understand his importance, the Berlin Wall falls and Cuba enters the deepest economic crisis the island has ever known. Malin is now so entrenched in the lives of the Chernobyl Children that he fails to notice how his young family is suffering. He must finds his way back to his wife and young child through the lessons he learns from the children in the hospital, becoming a better person on the way.

Credits

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