Chernobyl a Miniseries Between “Reality” and “Television”
/Chernobyl a miniseries between “reality” and “television”
Giorgio Grignaffini (University IULM, Milan)
Chernobyl (HBO – SKY, 2019) is a miniseries inspired by the real fact (or, rather to say, by the huge amount of historical, journalistic, administrative and scientific documents available on the subject) and also, in part, by the book Prayer for Chernoby by Svetlana Aleksievic.
Miniseries are one of the most popular formats in current television production. They are characterised by a closure at the end of the planned episodes and are therefore also called limited series. Often miniseries have a closed, non-expandable narrative arc due to the origin of the subject on which they are based: when they are inspired by real events (such as Chernobyl) or biographies, the narrative closure is implicit in the very nature of the subject they deal with. The same applies to miniseries derived from novels, although in this case it is possible to produce spin-offs or prequels exploring aspects of the fictional world not developed in the original novel. In the case of miniseries created especially for TV (often called originals) the narrative closure is more easily overcome as there is no 'closed' source of inspiration such as a historical fact or novel.
The relationship between the factual reality - or rather, as we specified above, between the portions of reality known through historical and journalistic sources - and the fictional reconstruction is at the heart of the miniseries and its interpretation by the viewers (see Nicola Dusi's post).
Since Chernobyl is a miniseries belonging to the fictional genre, historical facts are transformed into a storytelling, which must be compelling from the point of view of actions and engaging from the point of view of passions. To achieve these goals, a central function is played by the characters, in particular the protagonist who usually plays a key role in miniseries.
Valery Legasov, the Soviet scientist on the front line to reduce the consequences of the reactor explosion and later assigned to investigate responsibility for the disaster, is seleceted as the leading role to achieve two purposes:
● He represents a critical perspective towards the Soviet government's handling of the event (ethical focus of the narrative).
● He is presented as a tragic hero: hence the choice to begin with his suicide two years after the reactor explosion (emotional focus of the story).
Chernobyl begins with Legasov's suicide two years after the disaster: this choice puts a tragic dimension at the centre of the whole story, a choice which was not too obvious. Another narrative strategy could have been used: in the Russian film Chernobyl 1986 (2021) - by placing one of the firemen who fought against the explosion as the leading role, it is presented a euphoric perspective to the story, exalting its dimension of heroism and sacrifice and not that of denunciation (Legasov's suicide is an indictment of the Soviet regime, which did not listen to his request to shed full light on the responsibilities connected with the accident)
In the series TV industry, characters are very often created using the paths codified in the specialised literature (the manuals of Mc Kee[1] , Vogler[2] , Seger[3] , to name but a few), in which narrative and character construction are to a certain extent 'standardised' (see Paolo Braga’s post).
So, Legasov's narrative arc includes some of the classic codified phases such as “the call to adventure” when he is summoned by the authorities to investigate what happened; the “crossing of the threshold” when he arrives at Chernobyl and begins to realise what has happened; the meeting with two figures such as Dr Ulana and government official Boris Scerbina who play the role of “helper” and “mentor”; the challenges he encounters before “the final showdown” in which he tries to proclaim the truth in front of the authorities. Being a tragic hero, the ending does not provide him for a direct reward (Legasov commits suicide in disappointment at having failed to get the truth about the Soviet state's involvement across), but finally, as emerges from the final sequence explaining what happened after his suicide, his courage in exhibiting the truth is rewarded and his figure rehabilitated.
[1] Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, ReganBooks, New York, 1997
[2] Chris Vogler, Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers, Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, 2007
[3] Linda Seger, And the Best Screenplay Goes to...Learning from the Winners, Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, 2008
Figure 1 Valery Legasov in reality and actor Jared Harris in Chernobyl
This implies searching the biographies of the characters in the miniseries for elements that can be adapted to these narrative schemes; or else historical reality itself is to some extent bent to the needs of serial narration.
The narrative inspired by a historical fact such as Chernobyl is constructed first of all by sequencing a series of events that really occurred, constructing a sequence that is already narrative, even if only as a matter of chronology (post hoc, propter hoc);
This sequence may start from:
● a narration that already exists in other media (such as a novel)
● a research work: in this case, the scriptwriter performs an activity very similar to that of the historian.
In the latter case, unlike the derivation from a novel, a storytelling is created through a process that selects among the many possible paths of meaning present in the historical or biographical data, those most functional to give an overall sense of the story.
The negotiation between historical data, with their chronology of events, and their narration work through expansion or compression according to a principle that we can define as “elasticity”, which is thus closely linked to the underlying meaning project. Expanding, compressing, even omitting or, on the contrary, adding facts that did not really happen, is a choice that produces very substantial effects in terms of meaning: the choice of Legasov as the main character is functional in highlighting the contrast between the truth ( supported by Legasov) and the lies (long supported by the Soviet regime).
At the iconic level, the same dynamic occurs between the original sources (the images circulating in the semio-sphere relating to the facts or characters of an event) and the series or films that are produced from them. Chernobyl fully belongs to this second type, as the faces of the characters portrayed in the miniseries are almost unknown to the wider public.
In order to describe what kind of relations can occur between the real source and its adaptation for the screen, it is convenient to use the diagramatisation offered by a typical tool of semiotic analysis, the so called “semiotic square” that opposes continuity and discontinuity of fiction and reality:
Based on this, we can subdivide miniseries, series or films in relation to their greater or lesser adherence to real facts or characters
● Continuity: the film or miniseries tries to reproduce the well-known images of the event or characters as faithfully as possible. For example, in Bohemian Rapsody (2018), Queen's participation in the 1985 Live Aid concert is re-enacted by the film, not only by seeking maximum fidelity in the physiognomy of the protagonists, as throughout the whole film, but by recreating exactly many of the shots broadcast during the live coverage of the event.
Figure 2: Rami Malek (on the left) as Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rapsody and the real Freddy Mercury during the Live Aid Concert
In some of the sequences of Chernobyl, an effort is made to faithfully reconstruct some of the few images filmed live during the nuclear accident, but these images are not very well known. The 'philological' reconstruction of these scenes, rather than an activator of shared memory with the viewer, seems to be due to a concern to make the series irreproachable from the point of view of realism. Even the final sequence of the series analysed by Nicola Dusi, by showing the archive images again at the end of the fictionalized series, tries to emphasise their testimonial value even within a narrative genre framework.
Figure 3 . A fireman in HBO miniseries and a real fireman in 1986 at Chernobyl
● Discontinuity: occurs in those products that freely reinterpret faces, places, even rewriting history to bend it to an autonomous expressive purpose. In Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) or in the series Versailles (Canal +, 2015), the degree of freedom with respect to historical fact is very high and more important than the acknowledgement of the 'true historian' is the emotional involvement of the audience.
Figure 4 Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette in Sofia Coppola’s movie and a Marie Antoinette’s portrait (Joseph Ducreux, 1769)
● "Non-discontinuity": occurs when one seeks a resemblance to 'real' images (similarity of actors, locations, etc.), but without going so far as to seek a perfect coincidence. In Chernobyl, the protagonists or environments were chosen to achieve a certain closeness to the originals, but since these are mostly not well-known characters, perfect resemblance is clearly not the ultimate goal (also because few viewers would be able to fully grasp the differences)
● "Non-continuity": occurs when, against a background of similarity underlying the figurative design of a film or series, characters or locations are intentionally rewritten and reinterpreted. In Chernobyl, for example, the several scientists who worked together to reduce the effects of the explosion are 'condensed' into a fictional but very plausible character, Dr Khomyuk.
=
Biography
Giorgio Grignaffini is Head of Drama at Taodue film (Mediaset Group) with which he produced several TV series and theatrical films, including Made in Italy (HBO Latam & Amazon Prime VIdeo, 2019), Yara (Netflix, 2021), Call Me Francis (2015). He carries out teaching and research activities at the Cattolica University and IULM in Milan. His scientific interests are in the field of semiotics and media theory. His most recent publications include I generi televisivi (Carocci, Rome, 2021 -3rd edition), Che cos'è una serie tv (with Andrea Bernardelli, Carocci, 2017), and Capire le serie tv, (with Nicola Dusi, Carocci, Rome, 2020).
