They cut open skulls with STONES and somehow you lived? Medical madness through the ages.
The documentary tells the exciting story of the beginnings of surgery through to its specialization - a fascinating journey through time from the Stone Age with the first skull openings through antiquity and the early modern era to the first heart operation. The film was shot at the most important locations in the history of surgery - including Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Hungary and the USA. The film contains fascinating and partly unpublished archive material.
Production
Stunning location shoots across seven countries at historic surgical sites.
Editing
Unpublished archive material brings ancient procedures viscerally alive.
Direction
Koshofer and Twente balance scholarly rigor with accessible storytelling.
Director
Nina Koshofer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bioarchaeologist Rachel Kalisher literally reads ancient bones to reconstruct surgical outcomes—her work on Neolithic trepanation survival rates rewrote assumptions about early medical knowledge.
The documentary's Hungarian segments feature Dr. Zsolt Bereczki discussing the Semmelweis legacy—whose handwashing discovery was rejected by colleagues, driving him to asylum death. The film quietly asks: what life-saving truths are we ignoring now?
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