Self-settlers return to Chernobyl after the disaster. Some return two months after, sneaking through the bushes. The бабушки & дедушки remain unwilling to rebuild lives in a safer place. These elders aren’t as concerned about the invisible radiation, caring more for their memories and the land itself. In humble homes, бабушки & дедушки hold each other, elderly hand on elderly hand. Brightly colored headscarves cloak бабушки. The self-settlers help heal the land in their own way, planting crops.

The Ukrainian government has declared that when all the self-settlers die, the land will be uninhabited for one thousand years. The radiation will dissipate but so will the memories and the vegetables.