The English Surgeon

(United Kingdom, 2007, 94 mins)

HDCam

Selected Filmography:  

EXEC PRODS: Greg Sanderson, Nick Fraser, Sally Jo Fifer
PRODS: Geoffrey Smith, Rachel Wexler
CAM: Graham Day
ED: Kathy O'Shea
MUS: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis

This is one extraordinary documentary, approaching hugely emotive subject matter with nimble delicacy... a life affirming, unforgettable portrait of a true humanitarian.--Time Out.

Every year since his first visit to Kiev in 1992, London neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Marsh has returned to the Ukraine to perform pro bono operations, train surgeons and recycle desperately needed tools and implements. The situation in the cash-strapped country continues to be dire, and misdiagnosis is rife. It makes for heartbreaking work. For many of the patients he sees it’s too late to make a difference. For others, he must weigh the risks of brain surgery--with inferior equipment (a cordless handyman drill)--against the consequences of doing nothing. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, Marsh is haunted by an operation he performed on a young girl that went catastrophically wrong...

This remarkable portrait of an extraordinary man won the top prize at Hot Docs this year. It’s an enthralling film for many reasons: the doctor’s deep core of compassion and altruism; his sometimes grimly humorous camaraderie with a Ukrainian colleague, Igor Kurilets, considered a renegade in his country for his desire to set up a specialist neurological clinic; the pressures both men face dealing with very different but in some ways disturbingly similar political bureaucracies. What makes it unforgettable, however, is the prolonged 15-minute brain operation we witness, as gripping as anything in a Hollywood thriller, for which the patient--an epileptic named Marian--is awake the whole time. With a subtle score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, this is riveting viewing. “Funny, frightening and deeply moving”--The London Times

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