Soundmate Ignatenko lost both her husband and newborn daughter as a result of the radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. In the TV series, her life story is used as a symbol of how the disaster in 1986 hit the people of the city of Prypjat.

- When I found out that it was going to be a movie about me, I felt hurt and ill at ease, she tells the BBC.

According to Ljudmila Ignatenko, she never gave the film company permission to use her story. She says that the film company HBO / Sky that produced the series at one point contacted her and offered compensation - but then the series was already filmed.

- I think the film company has behaved very badly by not meeting me, she says.

Confirms past criticism

Similar criticism has already been directed at Chernobyl. Then by the Swedish documentary filmmaker Gunnar Bergdahl who made two documentaries about Ljudmila Ignatenko, Ljudmila's voice from 2001 and the follow-up Ljudmila and Anatoly from 2006.

"They have fictionalized a person's life without them wanting it, and it is clear that it raises a huge ethical problem," Gunnar Bergdahl told Culture News in connection with this.

HBO / Sky: We have contacted her

In a statement, HBO opposes that they should not have contacted Ljudmila Ignatenko. They write that local representatives should have had contact with her before, during and after the film work, and that at no time did she express that she did not want her story to be told.

At the same time, the TV series director, Swedish Johan Renck, confirmed to Culture News this summer that the portrayal of Ljudmila Ignatenko was not approved by her.

- First, you don't need someone's permission to portray them in a TV series. Our intention has always been to tell these stories with a reverence and as close to the truth as possible, Johan Renck told the Culture News then.

The cultural news seeks out the director of the series Johan Renck.