ABOUT FILM
Amidst the vast steppes and boundless horizon, Kazakh land bears the scars of devastation and man-made catastrophe. JARA - Radioactive Patriarchy: Women of Qazaqstan is an independent documentary that unearths the tragic legacy of environmental destruction and human suffering caused by 40 years of nuclear testing on Kazakh land.
The word jara means "a wound" in the Kazakh language. Nuclear wounds have spread across millions of things - humans, animals, insects, water, air, and soil. Ionizing radiation has cursed millions of people across past, present, and future generations.
Some struggles and scars of the nuclear age have remained unseen. Women and girls have been disproportionately impacted by the nuclear testing program. Since 2022, Aigerim Seitenova, a third-generation survivor of Soviet nuclear testing, has started a self-reflection journey to confront and understand her own family’s nuclear legacy.
Through this self-exploration and six testimonies from women in nuclear-affected regions, the film delves into the gendered impact of radiation: state-sponsored and technology-driven gender-based violence, the social and cultural consequences of technocratic governance and militarization. At the same time, the film highlights women's roles and their leadership within local communities.
As the echoes of explosions fade into history and women’s lived experiences are sidelined in patriarchal societies that glorify masculinity and militarism, the author strives to assert women’s agency. The film creates a space where stories are shared from one nuclear-affected woman to another, deliberately avoiding the dominant narratives imposed by non-nuclear-affected communities - victimization, objectification, and exploitation of these lived experiences in the post-testing period.
By sharing their pain, six women in this film tell us a heart-wrenching testament to the collective pain of millions harmed by nuclear weapons tests.