Holland Festival goes Nuclear: Atomic by Mark Cousins

Anyone who can remember the fall of the wall has grown up with the threat of nuclear attack. And with that comes the idiotic government advice to get under the table in case of a nuclear explosion, preferably with a colander on your head. And to keep plenty of canned food and water on hand.

Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The BBC contributed to this by broadcasting a themed week for which they asked Mark Cousins to record an episode of the TV series Storyville to make. The result was Atomic, a documentary composed of found footage, which highlights the threats posed by nuclear weapons, but also the medical technologies that came hand in hand. This may sound like a dry educational film, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Mark Cousins has made a name for himself as a curator, writer and filmmaker. With his 15-hour The Story of Film rewrote film history. With his unctuous, lilting voice, he told a different history, one that not only featured Hollywood films, but travelled the world to sing the praises of his own love for film and fuel ours. For him, Ozu and Sembene Ousmane are at least as important as Coppola and Chaplin. A refreshing perspective.

He does the same in Atomic. We will have to miss his voice. For some, that will be a relief: not everyone was enamoured with his thick Irish accent. But what has remained is a wonderful collection of fragments, which have an alienating beauty. It reminded me very much of the French philosopher Paul Virilio, who argues that technological developments cannot be done without a risk of accidents. He even made an exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in which he thematised that. In it, he also denounced the difficult beauty of accidents and disasters. Also in Atomic you cannot escape the morbid appeal of utter devastation.

So why watch a year-old film at the Holland Festival anyway? One word: Mogwai. The Scottish band provides the live score to this film. And they do it well. So well, in fact, that Rock Action Records issued the soundtrack. Sometimes the music is dreamy and wistful, other times nightmarish. It is the perfect accompaniment for this impressive film. Louder than you can put it on at home. I totally remember why it's such a good band.