''The English Surgeon'' is a documentary film that premiered at the
BFI London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...
in 2007.
It focuses on the work of
Henry Marsh, a neurosurgeon from the
UK, and his efforts to help desperately ill patients in
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
hospitals.
Henry Marsh first went to
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, Ukraine in 1992 to give lectures, and was appalled when he saw the medical system there. He states he was treating patients with medical complications that had not been seen in the United Kingdom for more than 60 or 70 years. When he offered his help, he was told that it would be nothing more than “a drop of water in the ocean” unless he changed the whole health care system. Deciding to do what he could, he started to train local doctors in surgical procedures, bringing equipment from the UK and performing surgery without charge. Alongside Ukrainian colleague Dr Igor Kurilets, he treated many patients who had been told they had no hope of survival, despite the political issues that arose.
The film was a 2010 News & Documentary Emmy award winner.
Plot and characters
The film was shot in a
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
hospital full of desperate patients and makeshift equipment, but it is not a medical film—it is about
Henry Marsh, his partnership with Ukrainian colleague Igor Petrovich Kurilets, and their struggle with moral, ethical and professional issues.
[
Marsh is an English specialist neurosurgeon who operates on the brain using only ]local anaesthetic
A local anesthetic (LA) is a medication that causes absence of pain sensation. In the context of surgery, a local anesthetic creates an absence of pain in a specific location of the body without a loss of consciousness, as opposed to a general an ...
so that patients remain conscious and can provide feedback during the procedure. Marsh emphasises how hospital environment and design affect patient outcomes, and how having only single rooms in hospitals reduces infection and allows patients to have peace, rest, and quiet in order to make a full recovery.
With a soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...
composed and performed by Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Ca ...
and Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is a British comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ( ...
, the film is set in a bleak Ukrainian landscape as the doctors struggle against logistical odds and the old Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
health system.
Kurilets faced death threats from opponents as he attempted to improve the local health care system. He would sleep in a different room every night and was fired numerous times. In spite of the obstacles, the doctors manage to save numerous lives.
Many of the patients whose brain scans they review have been diagnosed far too late due to medical costs and lack of equipment in Ukraine. This leads to the dilemma that is highlighted multiple times: would performing surgery do more harm than good? Marsh compares the position to a game of Russian roulette played with two revolvers. The documentary shows the interactions between the doctors as they are forced to tell patients that they are terminally ill
Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced he ...
and do not have much longer to live.
The documentary focuses on the treatment of one specific patient, Marian. He was tending his garden when he suddenly felt himself become numb from head to toe, and unable to talk or even scream. After multiple hospital visits, it is revealed that Marian has a tumour
A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...
which is causing epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...
. However, surgery is a significant risk because it could lead to complete paralysis
Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...
of one side of his body. Marsh proposes that he should remove the tumour while Marian is awake, using a technique known as brain mapping
Brain mapping is a set of neuroscience techniques predicated on the mapping of (biological) quantities or properties onto spatial representations of the (human or non-human) brain resulting in maps.
According to the definition established in ...
. This allows him to observe Marian's reactions throughout the procedure and ensure that he does not lose his speech or motor function
Motor control is the regulation of movement in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes reflexes as well as directed movement.
To control movement, the nervous system must integrate multimodal sensory information (both ...
. Marian makes a full recovery.
A significant theme of the documentary is that Ukraine lacks the proper equipment to diagnose and treat their patients, one issue being the lack of perforators (surgical drills commonly used in craniotomies). Marsh states that in the UK these drills are used once and thrown away, but that with proper sanitation they are actually reusable. He brought in used perforators, and Kurilets worked to find a way to sanitize and replace the rubber coverings so that they could be reused.
Marsh discusses the story of Tanya. She was a child who had a tumour causing half her face to be paralysed. In Marsh's opinion the tumour was potentially curable, and he brought her back to London for surgery. However, complications arose. In a first operation, Tanya lost her circulating blood volume
Blood volume (volemia) is the volume of blood (blood cells and plasma) in the circulatory system of any individual.
Humans
A typical adult has a blood volume of approximately 5 liters, with females and males having approximately the same blood per ...
twice over, and after a second operation she became paralysed. She died two years later. Henry's emotional journey takes him to visit the mother and family of Tanya at the end of the film, as he had never stopped thinking about her or her family.
Reception
*“Henry Marsh is a British brain surgeon whose humanity and talent with power drills make him an uncommonly enthralling linchpin” - Manohla Dargis, ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''[
* "Like Marsh, the filmmaker has taken a sort of triage approach to telling the tale, with near-perfect pacing as he moves between Marsh, the patients, and Marsh's wonderful Ukrainian colleague, neurosurgeon Igor Kurilets." - Betsy Sharkey, '']Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''[
]
Awards and nominations
* SilverDocs
The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Started ...
Sterling World Feature Award 2008
* Emmy award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
for Outstanding Science and Technology Programming 2010
References
External links
*
Official film website
Article in The Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:English Surgeon, The (film)
2007 films
2007 documentary films
Documentary films about health care
Biographical films about surgeons
Films scored by Nick Cave
Films scored by Warren Ellis (musician)
Films set in Ukraine
British documentary films
2000s English-language films
2000s British films