Mogwai play Atomic

Seventy years after the devastating atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins teamed up with Scottish post-rockband Mogwai to make Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise. The result is a magnificent combination of film, installation and concert, showing how nuclear power has changed the world forever.

Cousins, a prominent British filmmaker and author, used footage from the huge archives of the British Film Institute, NASA and CERN to create a kaleidoscopic flow of images. The audience watch historical public information films which now come across as completely naïve – recommending for instance a few sandbags and some whitewash on the windows to ward off a nuclear explosion. They're also confronted with iconic footage of ominous mushroom clouds and horrific images of destruction, maimings and human suffering; with footage of protest marches during the dark days of the Cold War and personal testimonies of the disastrous nuclear fallout at Chernobyl and Fukushima. But there are also beautiful, microscopic images of cell division, the wonder of life, evolution and the progress of life-saving technologies made possible by nuclear research, such as X-ray and MRI scans. Cutting the footage like an audiovisual DJ, Cousins creates an associative montage about the history of nuclear energy – a multifaceted and conflicting history. The atom embodies both the possibility of total destruction and the chance to make life on this planet better. Part documentary and part poetic video art, Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise shows the nuclear age as a nightmare as well as a wonderful dream. 

The Scottish rockband Mogwai – known for their gripping, innovative music – wrote the soundtrack, which they will perform live to the screening of the film. They've delivered a haunting soundscape which surges to hurricane levels and combines with Cousins' imagery to create a breathtaking audiovisual experience. Mogwai is currently made up of four members: Dominic Aitchison, Stuart Braithwaite, Martin Bulloch and Barry Burns. On stage, they're supported by Scott Paterson and Luke Sutherland. Since forming in 1995, they have been hugely successful with their overpowering, no-frills performances. Often playing with their backs to the audience, their music takes centre stage when they perform. Playing the soundtrack live to the film, they won't want to take the spotlight either. As founding guitarist Stuart Braithwaite puts it: 'We won't want to get in the way, we're not attention seekers.'

The band had wanted to work with Cousins for some time, having been greatly impressed by his fifteen-part documentary series The Story of Film: an Odyssey (2011). Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise is their first collaboration with the filmmaker. Originally commissioned by BBC's Storyville, the film had its Dutch premiere last year at Amsterdam’s International Documentary Film Festival (without live music). A screening with live music by Mogwai will be first staged at the Donaufestival in Krems, Austria in May 2016. For Mogwai as well as Cousins, Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise marks their debut at the Holland Festival.