The story of an ambitious medical student whose life is completely changed by the disease, but who also allows him to find love and value his own family, was directed by Tereza Kopáčová. The original Belgian version of Gevoel voor tumor was awarded the prestigious Prix Europa award for the best TV series of 2018. The author of the Czech adaptation is the screenwriter Matěj Podzimek. In key roles, alongside Filip Březina, viewers will see Tereza Brodský, Jiří Bartoška, Elizabeth Malou, Pavel Řezníček or Natalia Řehořová. The first of the eight episodes will premiere on Sunday, January 7, 2024, at 8:10 p.m. on T1.
“From a number of angles, The Sense of Tumor series is working on a theme that might read: I have cancer, what’s next? The central character has life ahead of him, health problems he doesn’t admit, he celebrates one success after another. On a day-to-day basis, though, things are different. Doctors will diagnose him with cancer, which will not only be written into his life, but will also affect his closest and friends. Even their fates are told this series optimistically and with a great deal of hope,” says creative producer Matej Stehlík. And he adds: “And that’s beyond anything that’s ever been filmed on this subject with us. For cancer, you shouldn’t be alone. Whether it involves us directly or someone in our neighborhood. The years-long taboo around oncological diseases we would like to break at least a little with this story, just as the Belgian draft did.”
Director Tereza Kopáčová adds: “Our series is about the profound sense that cancer can have. And the patients who have been through this disease confirm it. I’ve never met anyone who had lives and values as aligned at the same age as those who went through a difficult battle with this disease when they were young. They spontaneously confessed that they now had a happier life.”
Based on his own experience with cancer, the writer and co-writer of the Belgian original Leander Verdievel.
Director Tereza Kopáčová’s crew had the authentic setting of the University Hospital Hradec Králové for the filming of The Sense of Tumor. Many of the scenes were situated by the filmmakers, for example, in the premises of emergency medicine and laboratories, gastroenterology department or in the halls of neurosurgery, haematology and radiology clinic. Each of the eight episodes ends with short interviews with young people who have received treatment for oncology and have been actively involved in the patient project Fuck Cancer.
JK