Supercells

It sounds like science fiction. Doctors extract stem cells from a patients hipbone and manufacture an artificial organ to save their life. In a hospital in Krasnodar, Russia, Professor Paolo Macchiarini will do just that. He is to implant an artificially engineered trachea into his patients chest, a ballerina from St. Petersburg who is putting her last hope in his hands. This documentary accompanies Yulia Tuulik, a model and former dancer with the Bolshoi ballet, on her journey to Krasnodar, one of only three places in the world where Professor Macchiarini is allowed to engineer and implant a stem cell-made trachea. To conduct this life-saving procedure, Macchiarini relies on a highly specialised group of doctors, scientists and companies. This film follows the unfolding of this groundbreaking procedure, and peers behind the scenes of a controversial medical field: stem cells. They are called the magic bullet of medicine. They are expected to cure almost all bodily diseases - from Alzheimers to cirrhosis of t