Vasily Ignatenko's (Adam Nagaitis) story, and that of his family, is truly a tragic one. Ignatenko was a newly married 25-year-old firefighter who had gone to put out the flames at the Chernobyl reactor. Because of high radiation levels at the site, he died a slow and painful death two weeks after the disaster.
The details of his injuries are harrowing and graphic. On the outside, lesions broke out on his face, his body turned multiple colours, his skin cracked, and his hair fell out in clumps. Upon his death, Ignatenko was considered both a national hero and a radioactive threat, buried in a zinc coffin in Moscow.