The Guradians of the Formula by Dragan Bjelogrlić to have the world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival tonight

The new movie by Dragan Bjelogrlić “The Guardians of the Formula” will have its world premiere tonight at one of the leading European film festivals in Locarno, Switzerland. The movie will be shown in the festival’s prestigious, main feature competition lineup, Piazza Grande Program. The original story of a potential nuclear crisis in socialist Yugoslavia and the authentic directorial signature by Dragan Bjelogrlić were crucial for the international jury in Locarno to include The Guardians of the Formula in the program lineup, making it the very first movie from the Balkans to have its world premiere within the Piazza Grande Program.

“The invitation to the main feature film lineup of Lucarno’s Piazza Grande is an extraordinary recognition to all of us who have worked on this movie, and it absolutely provides an exceptional opportunity for another forgotten story from our history to face the shining lights through the big stage,” said Dragan Bjelogrlić.

The true story of an accident in Vinca (Serbia) in 1958 is a film adaptation of Goran Milašinović’s bestseller “The Vinča Case” whose screenplay is signed by Vuk Ršumović and cowritten by Ognjen Sviličić and Dragan Bjelogrlić.

In the midst of the Cold War crisis, a group of scientists from the Vinca Institute conduct a secret project led by Professor Dragoslav Popović. Due to unforeseen circumstances, they get exposed to a lethal dose of radiation resulting in the Yugoslav secret police taking them to the Curie Institute clinic in Paris for treatment.

The French medical team led by Professor Georges Mathé determines that their condition is critical and that their days are numbered. Although Professor Mathé has dedicated his whole life to the fight against nuclear weapons and profoundly despises the project the Yugoslav scientists worked on, he proposes that for a first time in history, a delicate and an uncertain intervention of bone marrow transplant to be performed on the irradiated patients. Whether it is a human experiment or a true attempt to save their lives become a tormenting question for the Yugoslav scientists.

The main cast include Radivoje Raša Bukvić, as well as famous French actors Alexis Manenti, Olivier Barthélémy and Anne Serra. The director of the Vinča Institute, Pavle Savić is portrayed by Predrag Miki Manojlović, while Dragan Bjelogrlić portrayed Aleksandar Leka Ranković, the chief of the Yugoslav state security agency. The roles of the young Yugoslav scientists the director gave to actors Jovan Jovanović, Alisa Radaković and Ognjen Mićović.

The Author team of the movie, led by Dragan Bjelogrlić, includes Ivan Kostić as the Director of Photography, Editor Milena Predić, Set Designers Jelena Sopić and Jovana Cvetković, Costume Designer Marina Vukasović Medenica, Film Composer Aleksandar Ranđelović, while the executive production is signed by Goran Bjelogrlić.

Production houses Cobra Film and United Media stand behind this original project, supported by Euroimages, Creative Europe Media, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the Film Centre Serbia, Film Centre of Montenegro, Slovenian Film Centre, and North Macedonia Film Agency, while the movie distribution is entrusted to the company Art Vista.