Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise

Seventy years ago this year, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed the appalling and destructive power of the atomic bomb. Mark Cousins, who also directed , has made a bold documentary that looks not only at death in the atomic age, but also at the living who have benefitted from the medical applications of nuclear technology. He uses archive footage from the British Film Institute, NASA and CERN – kaleidoscopic images that get an added impetus by a new soundtrack from the Scottish band Mogwai. shows us an impressionistic mixture of our nuclear times – protest marches, Cold War saber-rattling, government films giving us handy tips on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack, old scientific films and stories from the people of Chernobyl and Fukushima. Cousins doesn’t shy away from showing the most horrific images, such as an incinerated Japanese mother, her crying toddler by her side. We also see the sublime beauty of the atomic world, both at the tiny end of the scale and the vast, such as in the sun. He shows how X-rays and MRI scans have saved and improved human lives. The nuclear age is a nightmare – there are still 15,700 nuclear warheads in the world – but it has also made dreams come true.