Noted cinephile Mark Cousins, who began his filmmaking career working as associate director on Dear Mr. Gorbachev (1989), a television documentary in which ordinary people from around their world voiced their fears and concerns for the future to the Soviet leader, has here created a montage film tracing the history, good and bad, of the Atomic Age. Eschewing voiceover in favour of a typically brooding, pulsing original soundtrack by Mogwai, the film not only presents imagery of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, but also of X-rays and MRI scans, inviting viewers to consider the human innovation and thirst for knowledge that led to the splitting of the atom, just as that discovery led to applications that showed the species at its best and worst.

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.