Dragan Bjelogrlić’s new film Guardians of the Formula, produced with the support of Film Center Serbia, will premiere at one of the largest European film festivals in Locarno (Switzerland) within the prestigious “Piaca Grande” program.
The fact that it is based on a true story about a potential nuclear crisis in socialist Yugoslavia, and the authentic directorial stamp of Dragan Bjeloglić were decisive for the international jury in Locarno to include Guardians of the Formula in the festival program. This makes this film the first from the Balkans to have its world premiere as part of the “Piaca Grande” program.
“The invitation to ‘Piaca Grande’, Locarno is an exceptional recognition for all of us who worked on this film, and certainly provides an exceptional opportunity for another forgotten story from our history to come out into the world. I congratulate all the collaborators on this huge recognition”, said Dragan Bjelogrlić.
This true story about the accident in Vinča in 1958 is based on Goran Milašinović’s bestseller “The Vinča Code”, and the script for its screen adaptation is written by Vuk Ršumović with Ognjen Sviličić and Dragan Bjelogrić as co-writers.
In the midst of the Cold War crisis, a group of scientists at the Vinča Institute near Belgrade is carrying out a secret project led by Professor Dragoslav Popović. Due to unforeseen circumstances, they are exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, which is why the Yugoslav secret police take them to the Curie Clinic in Paris for treatment. The French medical team led by Professor Georges Matte concludes that their condition is critical and that their days are numbered. Although Professor Matte has dedicated his whole life to the fight against nuclear weapons and deeply despises the project on which Yugoslav scientists worked, he proposes to carry out for the first time in history the delicate and uncertain intervention of replacing the bone marrow of irradiated patients. Is this an experiment he wishes to perform, or does he really want to help them – this becomes a nagging question for Yugoslav scientists.
In the title roles, we will see Radivoj Raša Bukvić, as well as the famous French actors Alexis Manenti, Olivier Barthelemy and Anna Sara. The director of the Vinča Institute, Pavle Savić, is played by Predrag Miki Manojlović, and the head of state security of the SFRY, Leka Ranković, is played by Bjelogrlić. The director assigned the roles of young Yugoslav scientists to Jovan Jovanović, Alisa Radaković and Ognjen Mićović.
The team led by director Dragan Bjeloglić consists of director of photography Ivan Kostić, editor Milena Predić, set designers Jelena Sopić and Jovana Cvetković, costume designer Marina Vukasović Medenica, composer Aleksandar Ranđelović, while the executive producter is Goran Bjelogrlić.
The film was produced by CobraFilm and United Media, with the support of Euroimages, Creative Europe Media, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the Film Centers of Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia and North Macedonia, and cinema distribution is entrusted to the company Art Vista.