The New film by Dragan Bjelogrlić – GUARDIANS OF THE FORMULA will have its premiere in Belgrade on 26th October.

The film tells a story of humanity and empathy, a true story about a decades-long concealed accident that occurred in Vinča in 1958. The screenplay for the film is scripted according to the bestseller of Goran Milašinović – The Vinča Case, by Vuk Ršumović, with Ognjen Sviličić and Dragan Bjelogrlić as co-screenwriters.

The world premiere of the film took place at the Locarno Film Festival, in Locarno, Switzerland, on 4th August 2023, as part of the prestigious Piazza Grande programme selection, where it won two awards: Variety, for the best film in Piazza Grande selection, and the Green Leopard, which is awarded to films with the most impressive message. On 15th August, the film was shown at 29th Sarajevo Film Festival out of competition but within the main programme. As of 26th October, the film is scheduled to enter the regular programme in the cinemas.

At the height of the cold-war crises, in Autumn 1958, a group of scientists headed by Professor Dragoslav Popović is carrying a secret project at the Vinča Institute. Due to unpredicted circumstances, the scientists get exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, and therefore the Yugoslav secret police takes them to be treated at the Curie Institute in Paris.

The French team of doctors, headed by Professor Georges Mathé, concluded that their condition was critical and that their days were numbered. Although Professor Mathé had devoted all his life to fighting against nuclear arms and although he deeply despised the project on which the Yugoslav scientists had been engaged, he proposed a delicate and uncertain intervention of bone marrow transplantation, the first ever performed on unrelated human beings.

The cast includes Radivoje Raša Bukvić, as well as the famous French actors – Alexis Manenti, Olivier Barthélémy, and Anne Serra. Predrag Miki Manojlović appears in the role of Pavle Savić, Director of Vinča Institute, while the Leka Ranković, Chief of Yugoslav State Security Service is played by Dragan Bjelogrlić. The roles of the young Yugoslav scientists were given to Jovan Jovanović, Alisa Radaković, and Ognjen Mićović.

This project was backed by production companies CobraFilm and United Media, with the support of Euroimages, Creative Europe Media, Ministry of culture of the Republic of Serbia, film centres of Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and North Macedonia, as well as Hemofarm company, while the cinema distribution is entrusted to Art Vista company.