Altitude have announced the 8 March digital release of FUKUSHIMA 50; the gripping account of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster in advance of its tenth anniversary on 11 March. The film will be available on altitude.film and all digital platforms across the UK and Ireland.

Ten years ago the world looked on, as Japan battled to avert a potentially world-changing catastrophe - when, following an earthquake and tsunami, a nuclear reactor started to leak. Hot on the heels of 2019’s acclaimed Chernobyl, comes another recreation of a truly chilling moment in history, when the fate of mankind seemed to hang in the balance - or rather, in the hands of the workers at the Japanese power plant, who became known as the ‘Fukushima 50’.

Based on the extraordinary, jaw-dropping book by Ryusho Kadota, On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi, the film, directed by Setsurô Wakamatsu (WHITEOUT), is the rival of any Hollywood disaster epic, but at its heart it is a moving and extremely timely human drama about people pulling together in a time of unprecedented crisis.

Ken Watanabe (INCEPTION, GODZILLA) stars as the head of the power plant who must act fast to prevent total destruction, and rally his workers to action while the higher-echelon bureaucrats fail to grasp the enormity of the situation. The film drives home the staggering impact of the incident on Japan, still being felt a decade later, but is a stark reminder that, had it not been for the titular 50, things could have turned out a lot, lot worse.

A harrowing, tense and unforgettable experience, featuring fantastic performances from Watanabe and Kôichi Satô (MISHIMA), FUKUSHIMA 50 is a sobering look at how bravery and resourcefulness managed to avert a Chernobyl-scale catastrophe.

“We believed we controlled nature. It was human ego.”

SYNOPSIS

11 March 2011. When a 9.0 magnitude earthquake causes a colossal Tsunami workers at the Fukushima Nuclear facility in Japan risk their lives and stay at the power plant to prevent total destruction. Plant manager Yoshida (Ken Watanabe) and his team try everything to contain the leak.

Nearly an hour after the quake, the plant suffers a power outage, causing the power-operated cooling systems to fail. Although the workers initially try to run the plant on car batteries, they eventually risk their lives to get closer to the reactors and work manually to prevent the plant from overheating. This is their incredible tale.

ABOUT ALTITUDE

Altitude Media Group is the independent UK based studio led by Will Clarke chairman and joint-CEO with Andy Mayson, comprising of Altitude Film Production, Altitude Film Sales with Managing Director Mike Runagall, Altitude Film Distribution with Managing Director Hamish Moseley and Altitude Factual with Managing Director Paul Sowerbutts. In February 2020 US based investment group 30WEST took a significant minority stake in the group.

Since launching in 2013 Altitude Film Distribution have proudly supported talented filmmakers and given their films the dynamic and bold releases they deserve.

Forthcoming releases include The Dissident from Academy Award-winner Bryan Fogel, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari starring Steven Yeun, Victor Kossakovsky’s stunning Gunda, Tina from directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, Chasing Chaplin from BAFTA nominees Peter Middleton and James Spinney, feature documentary Diana from Academy-Award nominee Ed Perkins, Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibles, TIFF award-winning Night of the Kings from Philippe Lacôte, Mathieu Turi’s Meander, Stephen Kijak’s Rock Hudson: Accidental Activist and Ari Folman’s Where Is Anne Frank?