A sobering and essential documentary from Sundance that offers ground-zero insight into Gaza’s hospitals through the eyes of three American doctors—Jewish, Palestinian, and Zoroastrian—while confronting the abject consequences of death, destruction, and state-sanctioned narratives.

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Can you believe that we are living in a world where a missile attack blows up an innocent human being, who is then sent to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery, and later, when recuperating in a hospital bed, gets blown up again by another missile attack, and dies? 

It is impossible to imagine such a scenario, but that is what a doctor who worked at that hospital recounted in American Doctor, as essential a documentary as you will see this year.  It is also not at all difficult to guess where this took place, because it is now considered general knowledge that Gaza is synonymous with the systematic destruction of its healthcare infrastructure. 

Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish-American surgeon who volunteered to enter Gaza to help patients, is one of three doctors featured in this sobering documentary.  The other two are Thaer Ahmad and Feroze Sidhwa, a Palestinian-American and a Zoroastrian-American, respectively. 

Dr. Perlmutter cuts a frustrated figure, wearing his heart on his sleeve, while Dr. Sidhwa is more methodical and discursive.  Dr. Ahmad does his best given the circumstances.  The trio, all aghast at what is happening before their eyes, gives us ground-zero insight into the busy inner workings of these hospitals, how they save lives, and how they also fear for their lives. 

“It’s funny you don’t really think about the possibility of violence that much, until you are actually in it.”

They are also perplexed because, in their experience, they see no evidence of terrorists operating from within the hospital compounds, despite repeated Israeli military claims that Hamas operates from them.  

American Doctor can be very graphic at times—there’s a lot of blood, gaping wounds, and images of dead people, including babies and children.  At the start of the film, Penang-born director Poh Si Teng tells Dr. Perlmutter that she will not be including such images for “ethical” reasons.  The doctor, however, implores her to show them, as it is the right thing to do. 

I get the point, however upsetting it is to see the abject consequences of death and destruction—and mind you, this isn’t a historical event that we ought to learn grave lessons from, but an ongoing genocide, as the film makes painfully clear, in which the lessons have long been forgotten. 

Though I wasn’t entirely convinced by the film’s “sensationalising” of its epilogue (more than anything else, the questionable choice in the use of music), American Doctor remains a critical piece in counteracting state-sanctioned narratives and propaganda.

Grade: A-

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Trailer: