The Genius and the Boys
The Genius and the Boys

Movie·2009·1h 29m

The Genius and the Boys

Country

Sweden

Language

English

CineAI Pitch

Why watch this?

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// overview

The Story

Original title: Geniet och pojkarna

D Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile. Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind like Gajdusek's lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations? (Storyville)

Producer

Jonas Kellagher

Editor

Bernhard Winkler

Themes

child abusesexual abusenobel prized. carleton gajdusekprions

Production House

ARTE GEIE
BBC Storyville
DR-Dokumentar
Eight Millimetres
SVT Dokumentär
Svenska Filminstitutet

Audience Score

60%

2 votes

Skip14%
Timepass32%
Go for it36%
Perfection18%

Where to watch

Streaming availability not listed for your region yet.

// cast

Cast

Bosse Lindquist

Bosse Lindquist

Narrator

Michael Alpers

Himself - Professor of Medicine - Expert on Kuru

Warwick Anderson

Professor in Medical Anthropology

Sena Anua

Medical Reporter - PNGIMR

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek

Himself - Virologist - Anthropologist - Linguist - Author - etc

Robert Gajdusek

Brother

Robert Gallo

Robert Gallo

Himself - Director, Institute of Human Virology and Co-discoverer HIV

Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks

Himself - Professor of Neurology and Author

Lovisa Mbagintao

Secretary

Benoît B. Mandelbrot

Himself - Former Professor of Mathematics - Yale and Princeton (as Benoit Mandelbrot)

// crew

Crew

Bosse Lindquist

Bosse Lindquist

Director, Writer

Bernhard Winkler

Editor

Jonas Kellagher

Producer

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