A python slithers and curls over the abandoned control room of Chernobyl’s sister, the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, its radioactive core an unleashed monster that will slither through time for a million years. From Etruscan ruins and sunken cities to the most modern of underground repositories, director Emilija Škarnulytė follows our attempts to bury the immortal. Addressing the epochal effects of nuclear technology on all levels, Burial follows the cycle of power, an eternal return, another serpent eating its tail.

Dir. Emilija Škarnulytė - 60min - 2022 - Lithuania, Norway

Director's Statement: "With an eye toward the deep time of archeology and geology, I investigate human activity and the invisible structures that make up larger systems of power. My films are a series of politically active visions. With BURIAL it is important for me to talk not just about mankind, but about the planet itself, raising the question of why, when speaking about the Earth, we usually concentrate on humanity as the starting point." - Emilija Škarnulytė

"Skarnulyte has her own personal angle on the nuclear dilemma and displays it in a powerfully visceral way in the closing sequences, this time opting for imagination over technical perfection." - Cineuropa

"Occupying the liminal space between a geological excavation and speculative realism, Emilija Škarnulytė’s hypnotic documentary effortlessly moves between the micro and the macro....Burial questions the very possibility of rebirth and transformation." - Guardian

"With striking images and meticulous sound work, Burial reminds us of the paradoxical relationship between scientific development and the destruction of nature." - Visions du Reel

"formidable...visually maximalizes the inherently spectacular structures of nuclear power plants" - Filmmaker Magazine