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Ever since atomic energy was first used for commercial purposes in 1956, we have been faced with a dilemma: we produce “clean energy” but create the most dangerous by-product ever in the process. This high-level nuclear waste will pose a threat for hundreds of thousands of years. There are currently 350,000 tons worldwide – with a further 10,000 produced each year. The waste is placed in interim storage, in cooling ponds and in interim storage sites around the globe. If something were to trigger an uncontrolled chain reaction like an atomic bomb, the world would be engulfed in unimaginable chaos. The nuclear disaster in Fukushima in March 2011 was only a small glimpse of what could happen.


In order to escape this dilemma, all of the atomic energy producing countries have adopted the same political strategy: finding suitable places for deep geological repositories. Locating sites to rid future generations of this threat for all eternity. Such a site can only be the safest place on earth. Many countries across the world have spent decades searching for suitable locations and conducting scientific research, yet plans for potential sites have been rejected time and again.


In the film I embark on a journey examining the complex process of searching for the safest place on earth. It focuses on the people who have made it their goal to solve this problem for us, portraying their efforts, worries, battles, hopes and failures. The main protagonist, Charles McCombie, has never once lost faith and has played a leading role in the worldwide search for the safest repository site for the last 35 years. In the film he allows us an exclusive glimpse behind doors to places that are normally inaccessible to the public. On this journey, he encounters allies and some of his fiercest opponents.


The film explores the various levels of our deeply rooted collective denial. In spite of spending many decades searching for and failing to find suitable sites, we continue to produce high-level nuclear waste. With an almost religious zeal, we believe that everything will fall into place at some point in the future. Denial of this problem is worsened by the fact that radioactive material is already locked away in interim storage for safety reasons: in off-limits sites away from the public eye. Gaining access to these locations is subject to extremely strict conditions. The most difficult part of this journey involved getting images of this dangerous material. The film was one long struggle to get a glimpse of the waste. In the midst of this struggle, the idea dawned on me that we can only find the safest place if we collectively manage to defy the pressure of extreme economic constraints, do not blindly believe everything we are told and wrongly assume that statements are absolute scientific truths.


The film travels to the ends of the earth in its quest to find answers.


Edgar Hagen


Edgar Hagen – Director and screenwriter

99 Director HagenEdgar Hagen was born in 1958 in Basel. He studied philosophy and German language and literature at the University of Basel and Berlin Free University, where he graduated with an MA in 1987, writing his final dissertation on general ethics. After spending several years as a journalist and a dramatic adviser in the theatre, he began to work as an independent filmmaker in 1989. In 2000 he began lecturing on cinematic and documentary storytelling. He has been a board member of the Swiss Filmmakers Association (ARF/FDS) since 2010 and became head of the documentary film directing department at FOCAL, the Foundation for Professional Training in Cinema and Audiovisual Media) in 2013. He has two sons and lives in Basel.



Filmography


2013     „Die Reise zum sichersten Ort der Erde / Journey to the Safest Place on Earth“, cinema documentary, script and directing
2007     „Someone Beside You“, cinema documentary, script and directing
2001     „Zeit der Titanen / Les Années des Titans“, cinema documentary, script and directing
1998     „Dorothea Buck – Vom Wahn zum Sinn“, TV documentary, script and directing
1996     „Markus Jura Suisse – Der verlorene Sohn / Le fils prodigue“, cinema documentary, script and directing
1994     „Gewitter im Gehirn“, TV documentary, script and directing
1993     „Faxenmacher“, TV documentary, script and directing
1991     „Kleine Lieben“, script and directing

trenner

A JOURNEY TO THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH