In this personal and moving documentary TV presenter Colm Flynn sets out to track down the little boy his family tried to adopt from Belarus 16 years ago. The Flynns had fostered Banni for a year and half and, although he had become part of the family, the Belarusian authorities vetoed their attempts to keep him and Banni had to return to the special needs orphanage from where he came.
Banni was one of the many children abandoned by their families in the years after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and put into orphanages dotted all over Belarus, institutionalised in facilities with awful conditions.
In this very personal and moving Reality Bites documentary Colm travels to Minsk to track down Banni and find out how he’s doing now and what the future holds for him. Colm also travels to nearby Chernobyl to see first-hand the fallout that impacted on Banni and, ultimately, on his family.
Finding Banni : Reality Bites airs on Wednesday, 30th November at 9.30pm on RTÉ2