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The history of medicine is the never-ending story of the struggle for life, a saga of triumphs and defeats. Some of the most important and intriguing aspects will be covered in this four-part documentary. To draw the viewer into the narrative, the people portrayed are presented as members of a family gathered together at a garden party. The four episodes depict four human periods of aging and the typical medical challenges that go along with them, based on a statistical model of the World Health Organization.

Out of the lively bustle of the garden party emerge little scenes centered on one particular person: by means of the so-called time slice technique the action is turned into a “frozen” 3-dimensional scene and follows the selected person to hospital treatment – and goes back into history. A family member suffering from heart problems, for instance, leads to a segment on the discovery of the circulatory system by William Harvey in 1628. The documentary sequences interweave re-enactments of “magic moments” of medicine when revolutionary discoveries were made, and witness tragic moments when experiments fail and medical progress suffers setbacks. Authentic locations, original instruments, historically accurate re-enactments – these are the hallmarks of the fascinating documentary sequences alternating with moving scenes of a 21st century host family.