War Hospital

In the small town of Lokichoggio, in northern Kenya, dozens of planes returning from Sudan land on a short runway. Many have just dropped off relief supplies, but the majority are carrying wounded patients from the civil war in southern Sudan. These patients will be picked up at the airport by ambulances that will take them through dust and scrub down an empty road to one of the most unique places in Africa: the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Lopiding Hospital, the biggest field hospital in the world today. WAR HOSPITAL follows the life and fortunes of this field hospital during a three month period when peace might finally be signed in Sudan. Now, the hospital is experiencing an influx of patients who, because of the war, have previously been denied any access to surgical care. The hospital continues to see the immediate results of fighting in Sudan: gunshots, grenade injuries and even spear wounds. But it’s also seeing critical obstetric cases, infant burn victims, and gynecological patients, many of whom would have died without help in Sudan during the harshest years of the war. The ICRC allowed filmmakers David Christensen and Damien Lewis unprecedented access to the surgical hospital and its inner workings. With no narrator and minimal explanation, WAR HOSPITAL simply and powerfully follows international and local medical staff as they go about their duties. Mesmerizing, emotionally intense, and full of insights into human behavior, the documentary subtly brings home the horrors of war.