In 1973 the plans to build a nuclear power station caused major unrest among the inhabitants in Brokdorf, a small village located by the River Elbe. Despite long and hard protests, the power station was connected to the grid in 1986, only a few months after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. After that, things quietened down in the area.
The film “THE THING NEXT DOOR” is about the remaining protesters on site, their life between coming to terms with the “thing” in front of their doorstep as regards day-to-day life and their unrelenting anger about this serious and fateful defeat.
It travels through the deserted landscape and portrays the eventful past in the form of old footage and the rebellious villagers’ memories, a past that is far from over. In the end it gains new impetus following the events in Fukushima and Germany’s surprising “nuclear phase-out”.