FILMS/
THE ENGLISH SURGEON
The English Surgeon
Documentaries
England/Ukraine, 2007, 93 minutes
SHOWTIMES
Thu, May 1 / 9:15 / Kabuki / ENGL01K
Fri, May 2 / 6:15 / Kabuki / ENGL02K
CREDITS
- dir
-
Geoffrey Smith
- prod
-
Geoffrey Smith, Rachel Wexler
- cam
-
Graham Day
- editor
-
Kathy O’Shea
- mus
-
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
- source
-
Eyeline Films, 23 Sussex Rd., WD24 5HL Watford, UK. EMAIL: geoffrey@eyelinefilms.co.uk
What is it like to have God-like surgical powers yet to struggle with your own humanity? This question has plagued London neurosurgeon Henry Marsh his entire medical career. Marsh spends his vacation time donating his professional skills at a hospital in Kiev, where the patients are desperate for care and the doctors frustrated with their rudimentary medical equipment. For Marion, a poor young Ukrainian man with a life-threatening brain tumor deemed inoperable, the arrival of Henry Marsh may just be the answer to his prayers. As Henry prepares for Marion’s complicated surgery, he makes a poignant journey to seek out the mother of a former patient he failed to save several years earlier, in an inspired attempt at letting go of the painful memory that haunts him. Featuring an original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, filmmaker Geoffrey Smith’s remarkable documentary is an intimate portrait of Marsh as he battles the painful dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship and the limitations of neurosurgery. Smith discovered an immediate bond with Henry Marsh after their first meeting in 2003, while Marsh was the subject of Smith’s award-wining documentary for the BBC, Your Life in Their Hands (2004). Both men share a unique love of and fascination with the country of Ukraine and its evolving status as an independent nation. Amid Smith’s revealing examination of the deplorable medical conditions in Ukraine, The English Surgeon offers a sense of what it truly means to give someone hope when they have none.
—Joshua Moore
This film is competing for a Golden Gate Award. U.S. Premiere. Sponsored by Post Street Surgery Center and San Simeon Films.
