What was the significance of the subplot involving Pavel in Chernobyl?
In HBO mini-series Chernobyl there is a subplot that spans 2(?) episodes involving a young draftee Pavel, played by Barry Keoghan.
I'd say he's quite a famous actor but in the series he's just shooting stray dogs for a few minutes of screen time.
I can understand the significance of the other subplots in the series but this one eludes me.
What was the significance to this subplot? Was there any relation to real world events?
Best Answer
Yes, there is a connection to real world events: According to the wikipedia article about the liquidators, there were ~600 000 people "cleaning up" the area including shooting animals, removing soil, etc. - Thanks to those people, all long-term issues with Chernobyl have been rather local. Due to the high number of people involved, this is a big part of the story to be told, and it shows the audience one of the negative consequences (young men killing animals which is traumatizing them for their life) even for people not directly involved in the nuclear catastrophe in the first place.
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Shooting dogs scene - HBO Chernobyl 2019 | Don't let them suffer
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