More than a year ago, in one of our podcasts, we talked about the filming of a documentary about the development of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., in which one of the editors of The Borderline took part. Finally, this film, titled “EPISODES: The Shadow of Chernobyl” is finally coming to the big screens.

“In 2001, young Kyiv developers headed by Serhiy Hryhorovych decided to make the most complex game in the world: realistic graphics, open world and an atypical plot around the Chernobyl zone.

Since the beginning of the promotional campaign, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have been waiting for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but the developers have become hostage to their ambitions. They were endlessly improving the game and postponing the release date from year to year. But at one point, the American publisher lost patience.

This is a story about the video game industry, the love for their work, and a project that went beyond screens and became a socio-cultural phenomenon,” – reads the description of the movie.

On the screen, the direct participants of the development and people who watched the process from the outside share their memories of working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the Ukrainian gaming industry of those times: Andriy Prokhorov, Oleh Yavorsky, Oleksiy Sityanov, Oleksandr Kokhanovsky, Volodymyr Korunchak, Oleksandr Novikov, Oleksandr Maksymchuk, Oleg Danylov, Dean Sharp, and others.

The film, which is 77 minutes long, will premiere on May 16, 2024.