By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Geoffrey Smith
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2009
Running time: 94
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1200060/
Michael says: “Geoffrey Smith’s documentary THE ENGLISH SURGEON is a surprisingly powerful and effective film offering a glimpse into the life of English neurosurgeon Henry Marsh who travels to the Ukraine to help his colleague Igor Kurilets struggling to help patients under the barbaric conditions that exist in modern day Ukraine. Smith does a great job introducing the three principal characters in the film, Marsh, Kurilets, and one of their patients, Marian, a young man with a massive brain tumor. Clearly the two doctors are mavericks, blazing new trail in order to help those in need. But THE ENGLISH SURGEON is so much more than a documentary about a pair of brilliant doctors, Smith manages to show us what it really must be like to hold the lives of your patients in your hands, and to be helpless to save as many if not more than you are able to heal. While Marsh’s amazing surgery on Marian is the centerpiece of the film, the real theme comes from a little girl who he was unable to save years before. That case continues to haunt him, and the film closes with a visit to the girl’s mother years after her death. It’s a powerful moment that defines the film. 4 cats.”