The Heart of Nuba

The Darfur catastrophe in Sudan was brought to the world’s attention in a humanitarian information campaign that featured many celebrities. But another in the nearby Nuba Mountains of the country’s South Kordofan province is less well-known. Filmmaker Kenneth A. Carlson’s documentary puts the spotlight on the war that Omar al-Bashir’s government is waging (largely by air) on tribes in the region through a portrait of Tom Catena, an American at the Mother of Mercy Hospital who is the sole doctor providing medical treatment to the area population (estimated at nearly one million). Carlson provides a sketch of Catena’s life—including his childhood in upstate New York and outstanding football career at Brown University—together with observations from parents and siblings as he follows Catena home for a rare visit. Most of the film, however, is shot in Sudan with Catena, who indefatigably attends to patients suffering from illness and injury, talks about his commitment to service, admits his personal loneliness, and takes shelter in foxholes along with others who cluster around the facility when government planes bomb the countryside. Catena’s seemingly endless energy is inspiring, as is his upbeat attitude, which darkens only when he bemoans the world’s indifference to brutality being inflicted on the innocent residents of the region by a criminal regime, simply because of area mineral riches. The encomia heaped upon Catena by colleagues and supporters in interview excerpts here seem to be quite richly deserved. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)