Unrestricted View
Catherine Réchard
2012 - 66 min - HDV - France

The cooling chimneys of nuclear power plants can be seen for miles around. The airborne refrigerators that pump water from rivers to cool the heart of reactors are only the visible tip of power plants.
"Unrestricted View" sets out to visit with the people who live near these "monuments" and have an unrestricted view of them, whether from the countryside or cities or whatever place they are most familiar with.
The film strives to capture their little-changing daily lives, with the only caveat being that they live in the shadow of a nuclear power plant. The people living around two power plants in particular, at Chooz and Cattenom, in eastern France, discuss these obtrusive neighbours, sharing with us their private lives and personal tales.
The regions tend to resemble one another as we visit houses and flats and meander down riversides and country paths, leading the audience through landscapes that could just as well be Ukrainian or Japanese.