War Hospital

Until recently, the Red Cross operated Lopiding Surgical Hospital in Kenya, caring for victims of the long-running conflict just across the border in Sudan. Filmmakers David Christensen and Damien Lewis' War Hospital captures the facility's daily affairs with remarkable sensitivity, serving up powerful vignettes of saving and losing life in a war zone. During the night shift, a boy dies from an infected gunshot wound; later a healthy baby is born. In the bathing room, a badly burned toddler soaks off bandages, while in the courtyard recovering patients laugh and play volleyball or dominos. At the hospital, the violence seems like a vague and distant source of suffering, but the constant stream of wounds and illnesses testifies to war's destruction (amputees steadily receive handcrafted artificial limbs from the orthopedics department). Some stories, especially those involving children, are heartbreaking and hard to watch: a nurse, for example, must turn away a 14-day-old infant with a skin infection because he is too small for a skin graft. Other stories are inspiring, such as the visiting surgeon who treats 40 women suffering from fistula, a debilitating and difficult-to-correct ailment related to prolonged pregnancy; lying on their beds after the surgery, the women sing their gratitude to the doctor who cannot hold back her tears. The camera also reveals quiet, contradictorily graceful and disturbing moments at the edges of activity, such as light falling through tent walls decorated with hand drawings of tanks and guns. Without commentary or interviews, War Hospital offers a powerful cinéma vérité look at life and death on the outskirts of war. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Wadland)