Intimacy on Prescription
Can good sex save every marriage? In 1970s Czechoslovakia, two therapists try to prove it.
An experimental residential sex therapy unit opens inside a psychiatric clinic in Kroměříž. Married couples arrive for a two-week stay hoping to save relationships that have stopped working at home and in bed. Each case begins as a sexual problem, but gradually reveals deeper wounds: shame, power, fear, trauma and the longing to be understood. At the centre stand charismatic sexologist František Muller and precise psychologist Petra Tánská, whose methods clash as much as they complete each other. As the clinic becomes an island of openness in a rigid society, the doctors' own lives begin to fall apart.
Producers' note
Intimacy on Prescription is a key step in the development of Cinebonbon as a company moving towards ambitious scripted television with international potential. The project is rooted in a specific Central European place and period, yet its central themes are universal: intimacy, power, shame, communication and the courage to speak about what usually remains hidden.
The series grows out of the real legacy of Professor Stanislav Kratochvíl and the pioneering couples sex therapy developed at the psychiatric clinic in Kroměříž in the 1970s. We first encountered this world in 2021 while preparing the documentary series Chronicle of Orgasm, and the research revealed strong dramatic potential: case histories, photographs, period chronicles and witnesses opened the door to a story that is both culturally specific and emotionally recognisable.
The project was first developed internally by Cinebonbon with the support of regional funding and creative vouchers, and later entered co-development with Czech Television. Since then, we have built a strong creative package around it, including head writer Kristina Májová, director Jiří Havelka, costume designer Marek Cpin, production designer Irena Hradecká and cinematographer Martin Žiaran. The development is supported by expert consultations in couples therapy and sexuality and by international dramaturgy.
Our ambition is to create a series that is accessible, witty and emotionally truthful, without vulgarity or sensationalism. We see each sexual problem not as a provocation, but as a gateway to deeper relationship and social themes. The interest of Slovak broadcaster JOJ, the project's presentation at Sofia Media Play and conversations with broadcasters in the CEE region confirm that the subject travels internationally.
For us, Intimacy on Prescription has the potential to become a distinctive European series: locally rooted, visually strong, humorous and empathetic, while opening intimate questions that belong to all of us.
Director's note
I approach Intimacy on Prescription as an intimate, observational period series inspired by the real legacy of couples sex therapy, while avoiding a decorative reconstruction of the 1970s. The period should be present in the everyday texture of spaces, costumes and behaviour, not as retro spectacle. I see the psychiatric clinic as an “island of positive deviation” inside socialist Czechoslovakia: a place where intimacy is measured and evaluated, while fragile, awkward and deeply human moments unfold beneath the institutional surface.
The directing style will be restrained, realistic and subtly ironic. The camera will stay close to the characters, focusing on reactions, glances, hands, pauses and hesitations in speech. The clinic is not a neutral backdrop, but an active environment shaping behaviour: corridors, offices, patient rooms and the therapy cottage create different levels of exposure, privacy and pressure. The audience should feel present at a therapy session rather than watching a staged performance.
A key challenge is the depiction of sex and intimacy. I do not want explicitness or aestheticised erotic clichés. Intimacy should be shown as a process: often clumsy, funny, embarrassing and therefore truthful. Sound, breath, silence, body rhythm, light and distance between characters will matter more than visual explicitness. Humour will come from precise observation, never from mocking the characters; we laugh at discomfort, not at people.
The series also explores the contrast between the language of experts – methods, statistics, exercises – and the hesitant language of patients trying to name shame, desire and fear. Muller and Tánská will not be staged as unquestionable authorities, but as people with different tempos, ethics and relationships to power. The aim is to create a bold yet sensitive series that leaves the viewer with a gentle unease: the sense of witnessing something private, vulnerable and recognisable.
Biography
Jiří Havelka is a Czech director, playwright, actor and screenwriter. Born in Jihlava in 1980, he graduated from DAMU in Prague, where he studied directing for alternative and puppet theatre. His work is strongly rooted in collective creation, improvisation and precise observation of social behaviour. He is closely associated with the theatre group VOSTO5 and has directed for major Czech stages, including the National Theatre and Dejvické divadlo, where he has served as Artistic Director since 2025. In film, he made his feature debut with Owners, an acclaimed ensemble dramedy based on his own theatre project, for which he won the Czech Lion Award for Best Screenplay. He later directed Emergency Situation and The Gardener’s Year. His work combines subtle humour, ensemble precision and the ability to turn everyday situations into uncomfortable, revealing and deeply human drama.
Screenwriter's note
When I was first invited to write a series about sex, I was not sure I was the right person for it. I have always been more of an observer of other people’s conversations on this subject than someone who speaks loudly about it. But very quickly I understood that Intimacy on Prescription is not really a series about sex. It is a series about the need to be accepted, seen and understood by another person.
The main inspiration comes from the real residential sex therapy that took place in Kroměříž in the 1970s under the influence of Stanislav Kratochvíl. What fascinates me most is the paradox of that world: outside the clinic, socialist society demanded caution, conformity and silence; inside, people were invited to use first names, speak openly and name their most intimate needs. This tension between social control and personal freedom is one of the strongest reasons to keep the period setting.
Each episode follows a new couple arriving with a sexual problem they believe they understand. Therapy gradually reveals that the symptom hides something deeper: shame, trauma, loneliness, fear, idealisation or the inability to communicate. Their cases also mirror the lives of the therapists, Petra Tánská and František Muller. She is careful, ethical and slow; he is charismatic, brilliant and dangerously convinced that every problem can be solved with a method. Their central conflict asks whether therapy can be a “miracle on demand” or only the first step on a much longer road.
I am also drawn to the theme of limerence: falling in love not with a real person, but with the image we create of them. This becomes crucial in the story of Mila, a vulnerable young woman whose attachment to Muller exposes the limits of care, power and responsibility.
My ambition is to write a series that is funny, tender and emotionally precise. A series that can make us laugh from embarrassment and, a moment later, recognise something painfully true about ourselves.
Biography
Kristina Májová is a Czech screenwriter and dramaturg, educated at FAMU in Prague. She works across film and television and is known for emotionally precise storytelling, strong character work and a sharp ear for dialogue. Her recent credits include the feature film Caravan, which premiered at Cannes, and the television series Studna, awarded at the Czech Lion Awards. As head writer of Intimacy on Prescription, she leads the writers’ room and shapes the series’ delicate balance between period drama, relationship comedy and psychological depth. Her writing brings sensitivity, humour and dramatic clarity to stories about intimacy, vulnerability and the hidden tensions of family and partnership. In this project, she transforms a historically specific chapter of Czechoslovak sexology into a contemporary, character-driven series with universal emotional resonance.
Biography
Czech creative producer, director and showrunner. Co-founder of Cinebonbon Production Company. Her work focuses on authored television and film projects with strong dramaturgy, humour and social relevance. Her credits include Sex O’Clock, Chronicle of Orgasm, Zeros and Ones and the IDFA-selected Batalives. She is currently developing fiction series Intimacy on Prescription and 25 Percent, and the feature documentary Hope Seekers / The Theory of Absolute Happiness.
Profile
Cinebonbon is an independent production company based in Brno, Czech Republic, founded by creative producer/director Karolina Zalabáková and producer/visual artist Lukáš Gargulák. The company develops auteur-driven film and TV projects with strong dramaturgy, humour and social relevance. Its credits include Sex O’Clock, Chronicle of Orgasm, Zeros and Ones and the IDFA-selected Batalives. Cinebonbon is a member of the Czech Audiovisual Producers’ Association.