This new documentary from Steve James (Hoop Dreams, 1994) focuses on physics prodigy Ted Hall, recruited from Harvard at the age of 18 to work at Los Alamos. Although Hall initially took pride as a scientist in the work he was doing, the application of those efforts in what befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused the young man to consider a future where an ever-changing America continued to wield such awesome power, alone. His solution was to feed information on the development of atomic weapons to Soviet intelligence, believing (perhaps understandably, given that Stalin’s crimes against his own people were then unknown) that each nation would act as restraint on the other, but inadvertently contributing to the start of the arms race.

Screening as part of the Fallout season. Multi-film passes available from the IFI Box Office: 3 for €30, 5 for €50, and 12 for €100.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.