18 Feb 2013

Hopes winning documentary will highlight Pacific nuclear testing to European audience

4:09 pm on 18 February 2013

The makers of a winning documentary about France's nuclear testing in the Pacific hope their prize will help highlight the issue in Europe.

The film "Aux Enfants de la Bombe" has won the top prize at the Pacific International Documentary Film Festival in French Polynesia and will be shown next at a festival in France.

The film is based on the footage and journals of Bernard Ista who was an engineer with the French Atomic Energy Commission in French Polynesia and died of cancer in 1998.

One of the film's producers, Laurent Jacquemin, says Mr Ista managed to record the nuclear tests and his daily life, despite it being forbidden by authorities.

"What's great about it is he used to film and take pictures of eveything. It was forbidden but he didn't care. You can see him, he was filming himself swimming in the lagoon at Moruroa just after the bombs exploded and they were swimming in radioactivity."

Film producer Laurent Jacquemin