It is two years now since Meral Uslu was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her left breast had grown bigger than the right one. At the time, she was 51 and her first thoughts were that this swelling was a result of the menopause. “I thought maybe the other breasts would grow bigger too and I ignored it,” the filmmaker recalls of the first signs of her illness.

At first, Uslu had no desire at all to make a film about her condition. Then, she decided, she was a filmmaker and this was just about the only subject available to her for the time being. Ironically, completely by chance, Uslu had just finished working as the cinematographer on Sacha Polak’s doc New Boobs in which the young director, who learns she carries a cancer gene, decided to have her breast removed. (Uslu is Polak’s stepmother.) No sooner had she completed this film than she learned about her own cancer.

What makes My Cancer unique is that the director gives viewers the impression that they are in the patient’s chair. Everything is filmed from her perspective. The film is almost entirely focused on her therapy. One or two other patients (“my breast buddies” as Uslu calls them) also feature. “I have been a filmmaker for 30 years but I have never made a film like this. Nor have I seen a film like this,” the director states. “It is a film in which the camera is the patient and the doctors are talking in the camera. You don’t see me. You see all the time my therapists and they are all talking to me.”

The doc was started as a digital diary. The doctors were open to the idea. Her editor Floor Rodenberg was also encouraging, and told her to work on a proper script and to secure funding.

Uslu’s treatment took place at two hospitals and was shot over a period of around 18 months. She agreed to show the doctors and therapists My Cancer at a very early stage. “I said to them you will see the film before it is picture locked.” To her relief, at this pre-premiere, the doctors all gave the film their blessing - even if it took them by surprise. They had never before seen a record of the effect their treatment had on patients. “They thought the film was wonderful and they had no comments!” The doctors now plan to show the film to their patients.

How did Uslu decide to end the film? She ponders the question. “I decided to end it about half a year ago when I had my new breast and there was no nipple,” she finally volunteers. “My therapists were showing me what kind they could make.” As they fussed around her with an artificial plastic nipple, asking if it was the right size and if she was happy with it, she decided that would make a good end point.

This may be a film about breast cancer but, as Uslu’s remarks about the documentary underline, it comes with plenty of humour too. “I always make films that have heavy stories with humour in them,” she explains of her approach.

Uslu, who makes fiction as well as docs, already has two new projects in the pipeline. One is a documentary about the Dutch embassy in Beirut, a tiny establishment but one with responsibilities that stretch right across the Middle East. The other, also a documentary, is about two brothers adopted from Brazil when very young who went on to kill three people. The film looks at the court case and the anguished debates it has provoked.

In the meantime, straight after IDFA, My Cancer will be shown on Dutch TV at prime time - a sure sign that this is one cancer film with a populist touch.

My Cancer, Meral Uslu. Script: Lies Janssen Production: CEM Media.