Original title: The English Surgeon
Copyright:  Eyeline Films, 2007
Format:  feature documentary
Carrier: DVD
Color: color
Length: 93 min.
Original language: English, Ukrainian, and Russian
English subtitles: yes

Film crew
Director and producer: Geoffrey Smith
Editor: Cathy O’Shea
Director of Photography: Graham Day
Sound recordist: Darrell Briggs
Original music: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Co-producer: Rachel Wexler
Film website: www.theenglishsurgeon.com

Synopsis
[Adapted from the official synopsis of the film] What is it like to have God-like surgical powers, yet to struggle against your own humanity? What is it like to try and save a life, and yet to fail? This film follows brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he openly confronts the dilemmas of the doctor-patient relationship on his latest mission to Ukraine. Henry is one of London's foremost brain surgeons, but despite being a pioneer in his field he still rides an old pushbike to work and worries himself sick about the damage he can inflict on his patients. Driven by the need to help others, Henry has been going out to Kyiv for over 15 years to help improve upon the medieval brain surgery he witnessed there during his first visit in 1992. Today the patients see him as the great savior from the West, desperate parents want him to save their child, and his Ukrainian colleague Ihor Kurylets' sees him as a guru and a benefactor. But for all the direct satisfaction he gets from going, Henry also sees grossly misdiagnosed patients, children who he can't save, and a lack of equipment and trained supporting staff.  "Henry, Henry why do you worry so much?" Ihor often exclaims. Things are simpler for Ihor because he has only one goal ahead of him; the creation of Ukraine's first independent neurosurgical clinic. Looking at a famous Cossack painting on his wall at home Ihor exclaims that "Cossacks are the heroes of Ukraine…and a brain surgeon is just like a Cossack. It is an adventure - and I love it!"
Devoted to his patients, he has to work within the logistical and political constraints such a maverick career choice presents him with. Instead of an expensive medical drill for boring into patient's skulls, Ihor has bought a cordless Bosch handyman drill from the local market; and because he needed rooms to rent for his independent clinic he has found a temporary refuge in the KGB hospital, the very place which for years housed people who tried to persecute him and Henry for working outside of the State system.
Ironies such as these abound in revolutionary Kyiv, and through patients such as Marian Dolishny we intimately witness life in this topsy-turvy land. Marian is very poor and is from a small town in Western Ukraine. His religious faith helps him cope with a brain tumor which is causing him severe epilepsy, but he knows that it will ultimately kill him. Marian has been told that his tumor is inoperable in Ukraine, but Henry believes he can save him. To do so Marian must be awake throughout the entire operation however, and this surreal set of circumstances give rise to a dramatic, humorous and unforgettable 15 minute scene filmed with three cameras inside the operating theatre.
 Shot over two chaotic weeks in the 2007 Ukrainian winter, the film establishes each of our characters at home, follows Henry and Marian to Kyiv, and then sees Henry work through the endless clinics of desperately ill people Ihor wants him to treat. In some harrowing scenes we feel Henry's frustration as he agonizes over who he can and can't save, yet we are also with him as he sets out to save Marian's life.