Curious to see what kinds of people volunteer to work in some of the poorest and most dangerous places in the world, Current TV spent four months in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the lives and work of medical aid workers from Doctors Without Borders.
Filmed in stunning HD, the result is a beautiful and very candid two-part series revealing the immense highs and very real lows of the doctors and nurses as they treat victims of rebel attacks and endemic illness with the bare minimum of resources and without any of the creature comforts of home.
In the first episode, we meet the charismatic staff of Dungu hospital in the North of the country as they treat a variety of cases including a hunter mauled by a wild pig, a young AIDS orphan, undertake an emergency Caesarian and pioneer a new surgical technique as they operate on a group of men and women who have been mutilated by a local rebel group. We meet Thanya, a young and idealistic nurse from Lebanon, mischevious Frenchman Claude (the 'grandpa of MSF') and the strong-minded new head surgeon, Jean, who causes quite a stir as he arrives to lead the local surgical team…
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In episode two, we follow the emergency response team in the East of the country who travel on bike and foot through dangerous mountain rebel territory to locate and treat patients. We meet Federico, a young Spanish doctor who is exhausted after nine months of responding to victims of rebel attacks, Ferry a lone expat worker in the the region's most remote hospital and Philippe, a Doctors Without Borders veteran whose seemingly super-human strength is put to the test when he falls ill with a life-threatening mystery illness.
