Maksimovic. The Story of Bruno Pontecorvo


         Original idea and Screeplay Giuseppe Mussardo,

            Historical Research Luisa Bonolis

            Directed by Diego Cenetiempo


On September 1, 1950, at the dawn of the Cold War, the italian physicist Bruno Pontecorvo and his family mysteriously disappeared. This created a real political earthquake in Europe and the USA: Pontecorvo was in fact a scientist known around the world for his expertise in a very delicate area, that of nuclear research. The story of his disappearance is one of the most fascinating mysteries related to the atomic era, especially when it became known that he had crossed the Iron Curtain and moved to Soviet Union.


Bruno Pontecorvo’s unique life was strongly interlaced with 20th century history and with the development of particle physics. With his exceptional theoretical intuitions, which went hand in hand with his brilliant qualities as an experimental physicist, Bruno Pontecorvo is the scientist that, more than anyone else, has entered the secrets of the most elusive and enigmatic particle of our universe: the neutrino.


Chapters of the movie


The Medlar Tree

The Goldfish Fountain

The Paths of Freedom

The Italian Doodlebugger

“Liebe Radioaktive Damen und Herren”

The War of Shadows

Intrigue at Rome

Bruno Maksimovic

Mr Neutrino  

With the kind partecipation of:


Carlo Bernardini, Daniele Amati, Frank Close, Giovanni Battimelli, Simone Turchetti, Hélène Langevin-Joliot,

Alexei Yuryevich Smirnov, Paolo Lipari, Valery A. Rubakov, Gil Pontecorvo, Boris Joffe, Giuseppe Longo,

Serena Vitale, Alexander Zamolodchikov, Luciano Maiani, Samuel Bilenky, Ettore Fiorini, Antoine Lévêque,

Alexander Studenikin