THE ENGLISH SURGEON
Produced & Directed by Geoffrey Smith
Released by Eyeline Films
English & Ukrainian with English subtitles  
 

Picture this: A bleak Ukrainian hospital. Two English-speaking doctors discuss the fate of a terminally ill Ukrainian woman. Young and radiant, she sits right beside them, oblivious to the fact that these poker-faced men are discussing her looming death. In this case, one of London’s foremost neurosurgeons, Henry Marsh, tells his Ukrainian counterpart Igor Kurilets that her brain tumor cannot be removed.

A line of despondent locals stretches outside in the waiting room and down the corridor, hoping for a favorable prognosis. Trapped in a dilapidated medical system, these poor, predominantly rustic Ukrainians have come to Kiev for a consultation with the English surgeon—a messiah of Western medicine and, possibly, their only hope.

Affable and dry-witted Dr. Marsh—the hero of this quiet yet heart-wrenching documentary—bound himself to his philanthropic mission after a 1992 visit to a freshly independent Ukraine brought him face-to-face with the dregs of the Soviet medical system. Years of isolation, poverty, and the USSR’s trademark brand of bureaucratic corruption made hospital visits an unsavory experience, lagging decades behind the West. Disfiguring tumors were left untreated and brain surgery was conducted with drill bits purchased at the local flea market, if at all. Marsh’s horror at what he saw ignited an internal call to duty that brought him back to the breadbasket year after year. Teaming up with the local Dr. Kurilets as translator, protégé, and friend, Marsh was able to offer his preeminent expertise free of charge—treating and saving many patients otherwise destined for a lifetime of suffering or an imminent death.

What makes Dr. Marsh’s inspirational story especially moving is the plaintive soundtrack by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and a dichotomous focus on two individual patients—one, a regret from the past; the other, a hopeful challenge. His regret is Tanya, a small girl whose life-threatening brain cancer touched Marsh’s heart, and perhaps, as he admits, his hubris. Years after the hapless surgery, he still cries when discussing her case. He travels to visit her mother—with sorrow as their only common language.

Though Marsh vows never to operate again with the stakes so high, he takes on the challenge of Marian Dolishny, a poor and courageous young man soon to be ravaged by a growing brain tumor. His kind face and uncertain fate make him the film’s perfect target for our pathos and compassion. Because there’s the possibility that Dolishny may become paralyzed as a result of the surgery, Marsh needs to be able to communicate with him throughout the procedure to see if he can still move his limbs, meaning that Dolishny must remain awake. This makes the closely-shot 15-minute spectacle extremely hard to watch. But even if we turn away from the gruesome imagery, the film will remain lodged in the mind’s eye. Dr. Marsh’s no-nonsense nobility is as simple as it is inspiring. “What are we if we don’t try to help others?” he asks. “We’re nothing, we’re nothing at all.” Yana Litovsky
July 22, 2009