Hit French medical drama director dons scrubs to fight virus

<p>PARIS &mdash; Sometimes in the best cases, life affects art and art affects life.</p>
<p>In March 2020, Thomas Lilti was directing a critically-acclaimed French TV medical drama depicting the dire state of French hospitals, featuring storylines such as strapped resources, fatal illnesses, doctors’ suicides and mental health issues among hospital staff. </p>
<p>But when the pandemic hit, Lilti realized the world didn’t need drama to illustrate that story: It was happening all around him. </p>
<p>The creator of Canal+’s hit drama “Hippocrate,” a former doctor himself, was so moved by the urgency of the pandemic that he couldn’t just stand back — he put back on his scrubs.</p>
<p>Lilti — who also writes and directs the TV show that is named after the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates — ended up working in a hospital last year when the filming of his second season was suspended by France’s coronavirus lockdown.</p>
<p>“As a doctor, I just humbly tried to lend my hands and my knowledge and return to the hospital after not practicing for eight years. Just trying to improve things,” he said.</p>
<p>With over 102,000 virus patients dead, France has one of the worst death tolls in Europe, after the U.K., Italy and Russia.</p>
<p>With his studio shut down, Lilti transferred part of the set’s multimillion-euro decor — materials such as real stretchers, trolleys and infusion stands — to a real French hospital that was facing strains amid the pandemic: the Robert Ballanger Hospital in Aulnay-Sous-Bois, a Paris suburb.</p>
<p>“We gave all our medical equipment that was used for the shooting to the hospital emergency rooms trying to help them,” he said.</p>
<p>He then worked in Robert Ballanger Hospital for about a month, helping patients, identifying medical records and using the skills he had acquired before he became a writer and director. After a few weeks, he had to pull back due to a lack of up-to-date doctors’ insurance.</p>
<p>But the experience would impact him — and French television — in many ways. He used the drama of being back at work to rewrite the series’ second season. </p>
<p>“This frontal collision between fiction and reality for me was really a powerful experience and a very moving one,” he said. ("The series) is marked deeply by this adventure.”</p>
<p>The second season of “Hippocrate” is airing in France this month on Canal+.</p>
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<p>Adamson reported from Leeds, England</p>