Fresh
There's a bit of a gore factor here, obviously, but this is mostly a movie about brave people trying to hang on to their hearts while saving others.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
Higher Stakes. Tougher Choices. Medicine like you've never seen it.
2008 · 1h 33m · Unrated Documentary
Overview
In the war-zones of Liberia and Congo, four volunteers with Doctors Without Borders struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions. With different levels of experience, each volunteer must find their own way to face the challenges, the tough choices, and the limits of their idealism. "Living in Emergency" is a window into the seldom portrayed and less-than glamorous side of humanitarian aid work. It explores a world that is challenging, complex, and fraught with dilemmas - the struggles, both internal and external, that aid workers face when working in war zones and other difficult contexts.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Fresh
With limited resources, the MSF is compelled to fly from crisis to crisis, and there is never any real closure. The film shows us the anger and disbelief of those left behind.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Fresh
The good they accomplish is clearly dwarfed by the people's suffering, which keeps on going even after the war ends and the mission departs.
Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader
Rotten
The film confirms it's hard to do brain surgery on a battlefield. But it doesn't take a brain surgeon to think it could go deeper.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fresh
These doctors are hard on themselves and on one another, and as Living in Emergency chronicles their small triumphs and large frustrations, a larger picture emerges, almost despite the film's avowedly local emphasis.
A.O. Scott, New York Times
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