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This movie based in true story, accident on secret Yugoslav nuclear reactor, will take you on emotional rollercoaster following a drama of young Yugoslav/Serbian nuclear scientists, French doctors and group of just ordinary local French people.

Even dough story pivots around an accident during a Yugoslav top secret A-bomb/nuclear weapons project it's an actually a drama about humans, their friendship, sacrifice, compassion, greed, pride and power.

Supporting role actors - they win this show for me. Local French people like Odet and car mechanic, deliver direct emotions in small amount of screen time.

Two young actors in rolls of Yugoslav scientists/students, Zivota and Radojko, put up an amazing act as they manage to convince you in real life chemistry of the two best friends. Their banter and quarrelling, depict a true image of Serbian culture of friendship and humor. Guys did a hell of the job.

Other supporting acts of Rosa, Vera are very good and convincing.

Main actors, French and Yugoslav professors, put up a needed level of act. I have a feeling there was much more to give from their side. Especially from the Yugoslav professor Dragoslav. But this is where we come to screenplay and its limitations hindering main character development.

Screenplay introduces some unnecessary stereotypes common in western cinematography, regarding communist countries in general.

This fails in case of Yugoslavia, as it renders the characters of Professor Dragoslav Popovic, Professor Savic and politician Rankovic as Soviet style communists/clerks. That's far from the truth, and takes important traits of main Yugoslav character.

Bit of history:

In real life professor Savic and politician Rankovic took a heroic and important part in WWII as one of the leaders of Yugoslav partisan resistance - the greatest and the most effective anti Nazi resistance in whole of Europe!

At the start of WWII prof. Savic as a one of the Nobel prize candidates for discovering nuclear fission (foundation principle of A bomb) will return from Paris to Yugoslavia to fight Nazis along with his sister in ranks of partisan resistance. Imagine the heroism. Nazis will murder his sister.

Politican Rankovic will lead anti nazi resistance forces, getting his wife murdered by nazis, himself tortured by Gestapo.

These guys know each other. Coming out victorious from the hell of WWII, with the goal to create Yugoslavia as strong and independent from East and West.

Keeping independence in Cold War easily leads to idea of developing A-bomb.

Prof. Savic will advocate a local Yugoslav nuclear program independent from the east and the west. Prof. Savic will be the one helping Rankovic to send injured scientists to Paris, using his French connections.

There comes professor Dragoslav Popovic, as a wonderkid promoted by Prof. Savic, a genius with ground breaking ideas how to produce plutonium from local Yugoslav ores, needed for A-bomb. Dragoslav, works in romantic era, Yugoslavia is driven by its own epic anti nazi WWII victories securing it unique place in Europe, separate to West and East. Translates to endangered by East and West. People dream of securing Yugoslavia's peace.

Have in mind this is the time when the France - todays only nuclear power in EU, was struggling to come up with technology to create A-bomb. France was secretly working on their A bomb in cooperation with Israel and Jewish scientists from the Manhattan project.

Yugoslavia was war wracked, small, poor nation, destroyed by Nazi genocide of Serbs, Jews and Roma, but still had know-how to enter the race with US, Soviets, France... Quite amazing, right! But it took tolls.

Most of scientists working on the first Yugoslav nuclear reactor were just the kids, students and graduate's. Some of them were passing their undergraduate English exams on control panels of reactor before the accident. New technology, scarce funding, it ended up with accident. Followed by pressure from both West and East to kill Yugoslav a-bomb research, research was stopped.

Based on a true story of a first human bone marrow transplant, the movie is a gripping medley of Cold War politics, medical research and historical milestones intertwined with ideological and ethical dilemmas and beliefs.

Superb performance by Radivoje Bukvic and Alexis Manenti and outstanding reconstruction of the era. The character development and suspense building by Bjelogrlic keeps you engaged and glued to the screen. His success in balancing scientific and political elements with human drama of ordinary and not so ordinary characters, and their internal conflicts portrayed, adds depth to the story.

Saw this at the Movies That Matter 2024 filmfestival in The Hague. Insightful story about dilemma's faced by scientists, who want to forward not only science but also (and maybe foremost) their own careers, sometimes at the expense of everyone and everything. We see their interactions with politicians they need for their budget and to obtain material that is difficult to come by. Similarly, we see encounters with the secret service wanting to know all about their progress and what purpose it can serve, not always for the best of mankind, but they have leverage to get what they want to know, or to steer the project in the direction they prefer.

We see relevant issues in this context from two scientists, one behind the iron curtain and one on our side whose lives become entangled by (literally) accident. They both conclude that their encounter has a purpose. They delve deep in their motives and their conscience, equally relevant in both their respective research fields. In one of the final scenes we see a butterfly appear, not having a specific role, but carrying a hint towards us viewers that a minor flapping of a butterfly's wing can cause an avalanche or a tornado elsewhere in the world (butterfly and avalanche, both famous from chaos theory).

Neglecting family relationships is a particularly nasty habit of scientists. Our main protagonist even misses the birth of his first child. Later, when he is congratulated with the happy event, he does not even know whether it was a boy or a girl.

Even worse are their interactions with staff and others around. In contemporary terms: an unsafe work environment. With our 21st century eyes we consider their manners dubious, to say the least. We know that such norms have shifted considerably since 1958 but are also aware it still does not apply everywhere. An example from this film: firing someone in the middle of a crucial experiment when she did not address the project leader with his proper title, is not only counterproductive but is fatal in destroying a sound and safe work environment where every opinion and every employee counts.

All in all, an enlightening story in many aspects. The ancient environment anno 1958 seems to be rebuilt very well (I was 10 at the time, so my memory may fail on details). Strong and believable protagonists, each giving insight in what they want to achieve, though their ways of getting things done are not always the finest examples of pure science for the benefit of humanity. I scored a 5 out of 5 for the audience award when leaving the venue.

Beautifully done, amazing acting and very important story to be told about nuclear danger as well as humanity. Hard to watch on few occasions, but stunning!

Bjelogrlic outdid himself ith this one... And especial credit for doctor's (professor's) efforts in finding such an inportant cure.

Movie kept us on out toes from the beginning untill the end, and left us talking aboit it afterwords for hours, So glad that Australian cinema recognized the value of this film, so that we were able to watch it.

The movie is not light at all, so it may not be for everyone. But very touchy and really amazing.

I saw this film at the Palm Springs Film Festival this past January. For this showing, I felt a palpable tension in the audience during the entire two-hour length of the film.

The movie focused on historical events of which I was completely unaware. A nuclear disaster in Yugoslavia leads to infected lab workers being transported to France to undergo experimental treatments - the first transplant of non-related bone marrow .

The acting, direction, and writing in this film are top-notch. In fact, it was, in my view, far better than any of this year's Oscar-nominated films and the most intriguing movie I've seen in years. It is befuddling that this site's user reviews of this film are either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Were we watching the same film?

I would really like to have the opportunity to see Guardians of the Formula again to confirm my first impression of this film, but I've been looking for it since January to no avail. Why isn't this film available in the U. S. on Netflix or some other streaming service?