All of the time, critics (or just plain old movie fans) will tell you that a movie is “important” or “required viewing.” And 99% of the time, they are full of it. Almost no movie is important enough that every person should stop whatever they are doing and watch it. Plus, anyone who tells you that a certain film is required probably has some skin in the game, somehow. But that being said, film is still art and can have an enormous impact. It can be argued that documentary films have a chance, if they are seen, to have even larger impacts. After all, they, unlike narrative films, are attempting to show you a truth and a reality. Not one that is made up in a writer’s brain, but one that is pulled from footage of actual people. But yet, here I am, telling you that this film, American Doctor, is important and should be required viewing.
American Doctor, as the title suggests, is the story of three American doctors, but in this case they have one thing in common. All three, at one point or another, have worked in hospitals in Gaza. The three doctors, importantly, are all distinct in background. Thaer Ahmad, has Palestinian heritage and has worked in numerous combat zones as an emergency physician. Mark Perlmutter is white and Jewish, and he is a hand specialist, which is important in zones like this where blasts have damaged these areas of the body. Feroze Sidhwa is a trauma surgeon of Zoroastrian descent. All three of these men have different stories and the way that they interweave, captured by documentarian Poh Si Teng, helps the audience travel with them to places we have never dared to go.
If there was any question, the film tells you, from the opening scene, what kind of story you are about to watch. In an interview with Perlmutter, the director appears on screen telling him that they will have to digitize or blur some images. The doctor reacts strongly, with a righteous rage. He states unequivocally that the only people who are protected by hiding the horrific imagery are the killers of children. He refers to this as “journalistic malpractice” and you can see in his eyes how deeply he believes this to be true. The film then cuts to the actual image. The image is of three dead Palestinian children, murdered ruthlessly by Israeli attacks. The camera lingers on this horror, and we are forced to see it, maybe for the first time. There is an understanding that we may know facts about how many children are killed in Gaza, but numbers and images are starkly different. This moment is also important, as it sets the stage for why these three men would continue to put their lives at risk to return to an active warzone (no matter what the ceasefire reports tell you).
The film also lets us know that not every subject gets their way. Ahmad is continually thwarted in his attempts to return to Gaza. The Israeli government denies him entrance because of his background. Although this is frustrating from a filmic perspective, therein lies another difference between documentary and narrative film. Si Teng has just as much control over this as Ahmad does, which is none. So, in his sections, there is a sense of unease. He spends time with his family, but we feel that he truly does have a calling. And that is another thing that American Doctor reminds us of: Doctors, outside of our nearly broken medical system, are healers who are helping people for the right reasons. When governments and bad actors halt this calling, there is a deep evil at work.
Sidhwa may be the most relatable and open of the three. He claims no religious faith, but the lessons learned from his Zoroastrian family urge him to right wrongs in the world. What could be a greater wrong to right than that of a genocidal attack, which not only kills children on a daily basis, but shoots missiles at hospitals. Another repeated theme is how nothing seems to be off limits anymore. SI Teng draws a direct, and correct, line from the degradation of world politics to the allowance of attacks on health care workers, which is a literal war crime. And yet, this is expected by the workers in Gaza. In one striking scene, Sidwha reminisces about a Gazan who tells him exactly this. While Sidwha was confident that there would be no attacks, the other man asked him “why would here be any different?” It is a horrifying reminder that the world is no longer what it was. Things have irrevocably changed, and for the worse.
Surprisingly, the film never feels exploitative. Si Teng is dancing on a knife’s edge. We must be shown the effects of the death and destruction, but if they go overboard, you risk people either turning the movie off or closing their eyes to the horrors on screen. American Doctor is structured in such a way that it introduces you to the violence immediately and then focuses most of its runtime on the doctors themselves. It never feels removed from the violence, instead it becomes a threat looming over us, much like it looms over the hospitals. The film also never loses sight of humanity. The doctors are never perfect. One of them is too angry when being interviewed, another sees himself as being difficult in relationship with others. And strikingly, all three of them feel deep shame whenever they leave Gaza for the safety of their lives in America. Watching all three of them process these feelings makes you want to reach out and tell them that it is not their fault. But then, we think back to the Gazans, the people that cannot leave. We hear their stories where death, dismemberment, and abject terror is the everyday norm. We remember how lucky we are by pure chance of where we were born, and we understand the shame.
American Doctor is desperately important for us to see, and not avert our eyes. These horrors are being done in our name, and with our tax dollars. Although it may feel fruitless—standing against a tidal wave of money, politics, and military might—, the importance of our awareness, effort, and voices has never been more important. Times are dire. The film does not sugarcoat that fact, but we are all human and we have a responsibility to both see the world for what it is and fight like hell to change it, in any way we can.
American Doctor is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Watermelon Pictures. The film will expand to additional markets on September 4th.
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American Doctor is desperately important for us to see, and not avert our eyes. The film does not sugarcoat that fact, but we are all human and we have a responsibility to both see the world for what it is and fight like hell to change it, in any way we can.
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Dave is a lifelong film fan who really got his start in the independent film heyday of the 90’s. Since then, he has tried to branch out into arthouse, international, and avant garde film. Despite that, he still enjoys a good romcom or action movie. His goal is to always expand his horizons, through writing and watching new movies.
