Movies

‘Nuclear Nation’ a real life horror story

Few films have opening images more chilling than the ruins of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, or more bleak than the last 10 minutes of “Nuclear Nation.”

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan wrecked Fukushima, and made a large area around it uninhabitable. Atsushi Funahashi structures the film around survivors from the small town of Futaba, who at the time of filming were in their sixth consecutive evacuation center.

The film’s conscience is Futaba’s mayor, who describes how the power plant brought prosperity in the late ’70s through the ’80s, when its value rapidly depreciated and the town went broke. Fukushima poisoned their homes. “What were we believing in all this time?” the mayor asks officials. But Japan’s government and the power company, TEPCO, are shown as foot-dragging, at best — deceitful, at worst.

“Nuclear Nation” is likely to attract those who already oppose such power plants. But supporters should see it, too, if only to hear the opposition’s arguments. The film raises issues that aren’t going away.