Pasteur

In 1885 a young boy, Joseph Meister, was attacked by a rabid dog. His only hope was the scientist conducting an experimental treatment for rabies, but he was only experimenting on animals at that time. The researcher was the French chemist Louis Pasteur. So 9-year-old Joseph became the first to be vaccinated against rabies. This was the start of a revolution in modern medicine. The documentary drama Pasteur shows not only the professional, but also the personal life of Louis Pasteur. He was a biologist, a chemist and the founder of microbiology, stereo-chemistry and immunology. He is particularly known today as the inventor of the vaccination for rabies and the thermal method of sterilization that prevents food from fermenting; pasteurization. The film shows the complicated path to gaining acknowledgement for new scientific discoveries, which was even more difficult due to the disfavour of Pasteur’s colleagues from the French Academy of Sciences. It also shows the abiding faith that his collaborators had in him, especially Emile Roux, who worked with Pasteur for his whole life and participated in many of his discoveries. The scenes that are performed by actors reconstruct the course of events and are accompanied with fascinating visualizations, illustrating not only microorganisms, but also the course of disease in the bodies of animals and humans. (Academia Film Olomouc)