PLUTONIUM

Germany, 1978, 90 minutes, Colour.
Charlotte Kerr, Wolf Roth, Bob Cunningham, Anton Diffring.
Directed by Rainer Erler.

Plutonium is a German telemovie produced in the years when there was world concern about nuclear issues. In the early 80s, America produced several telemovie including The Day After, the dropping of the bomb and the reaction in Lawrence, Kansas. Other films included Testimony as well as the film about industrial espionage, Silkwood.

Plutonium has all these elements, the nuclear issues, industrial espionage, international lobbies. The film also offers the opportunity for audiences to reflect on the stealing of nuclear matter and its falling into the hands of terrorists.

Director Rainer Erler had a long career in making television films and series.

1. The focus of the film? The character of Anna Ferroli and her appearances on television? Questions and interviews about plutonium? Plutonium waste, issues of security, decay over time? Terrorists and totalitarian regimes?

2. The machine, the custody, Mario Sanchez and the pictures? The technological staff, the arrests?

3. The status of trade with other nations?

4. Manfred Hartung, Germany, his work on the plants? The kidnap? The release of left-wing prisoners? Demonstrations, footage? Anna Ferroli and her research? The abuse of human rights crying out for an eyewitness? An incorruptible chronicler? The issue of the Pulitzer Prize?

5. Espionage, photos from windows, phone calls? Embassy diplomacy? The wife and children under house arrest?

6. The nuclear power plant, fuel reclamation, leading to power, jobs, international administration? The interview with Direktor Arnold? The workers, the Germans? The local antagonists? Germans and the building of plants – otherwise the Soviet Union building nuclear plants?

7. Anna, her expulsion? The camera getting the pictures? Jimmy Carrera? The return and the hostage information? Local photography and social comment on South America?

8. Hartung and the visit? The underground interview? The release?

9. The world reports?

10. The stealing of the plutonium? Thirty to one hundred kilograms? Hartung’s sector? The explanations about fission?

11. The picture of Anna and the terrorists, the television talk show, the sex angle and the woman? Theories of terrorists and motivations? Roland and the explanation to Anna about research and experiments?

12. Anna, following the waste, the discussion with the workers? Hartung and the change? The plutonium and the secret police? The raid, deaths, the press conference?

13. The cumulative effect of this kind of exploration of plutonium, needs, production, exploitation, espionage? Nuclear fears?