Occasionally I see a film that makes me think “What have I done with my life?” Henry Marsh, a neurosurgeon who has been traveling to a foreign country (Ukraine) on his own dime to help people for 15 years as of this film (and at least 30 years as of Wikipedia) is one of those people that makes me think I should have done something more.
The film follows Marsh, and his Ukrainian friend, a doctor, as Marsh plans on returning to Ukraine for the 15th time, and then his trip to Ukraine, focusing on one particular awake brain surgery. It’s one of these films that follows the subject around, interspersed with establishing shots. As a documentary, it is pretty typical for these films that just follow someone around. It’s who they follow around, right?
This is, of course, and under-filmed country and the city he goes to is under-filmed, at least for English-language films. In 2007, they didn’t not have the resources and facilities for some more complicated neurosurgeries. Marsh has to make choices about who to treat, how, when and, in some cases, where.
One such case, years before, clearly haunts him. He believes he made the wrong decision. But we get to see the impact he’s had on the family’s life despite how haunted he is by the outcome.
The surgery I find hard to watch, but I’ve never enjoyed seeing actual surgery, I always get icked out. But I would say that, even if you are grossed out by surgery, this is still worth watching, as what this man is doing (as of 2022 he was still doing it) is remarkable.
People like this are just remarkable. I do wish I watched more documentaries of people like this and I wish I had especially earlier on in life when maybe I would have made different choices. (I could have never been a surgeon – see above – but I could have taken a different path. I doubt I would have had the character for, say, being a public defender, or what have you. But films like this really do make me think – is there something more meaningful I could have done than marketing? (Of course, I am doing something slightly more meaningful now than I was 6 months ago.)
Anyway, I’m glad there are people like Henry Marsh in the world.
7/10