Film Review--Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma

Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma
directed by Patrick Reed

As a guiding light in world humanitarian efforts, Dr. James Orbinski has seen more than his share of utter heart break. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for which he was a field doctor during the Somali famine and the Rwandan genocide. In this film he traces his steps 15 years since he first took the assignment and put his best foot forward in the effort to save lives.

Dr. Orbinski, a native of Toronto sets aside his daily life as a professor at the University of Toronto and as a doctor in order to reinforce memories that have haunted him from afar for the decade and a half since his work ended there.

Dr. Orbinski seems destined to apply his many medicinal talents to the project of easing misery in some of the most hostile territory on the globe. He is focused and driven in a way that few human beings ever are. The film shows us three countries as they stand today. Somalia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo become for Orbinski a chance to come to terms with what he has seen and what he hopes to see in the future.

We learn that human life can be and is treated with almost a sense of disdain in places where there is no stability and lives are lost for a variety of reasons that are wholly unnecessary. The militant government in Somalia, to take one example, often stymied the influx of foodstuffs that were so desperately needed by a population slowly succumbing one person at a time. In this climate of political unrest and rampant famine, Dr. Orbinski worked against incredible odds to reduce suffering as much as it was possible and to bring hope to the region. His safety was always threatened and there were many instances where there was simply nothing he could do to save a life.

By his own estimation, Dr. Orbinski and his team were able to aid over 80,000 sick and starving individuals who most likely would have died without the assistance. They built dozens of MSF clinics and a hospital which enabled them to perform their tasks more effectively.

The effect of the film is deeply troubling and moving. There is a genuine feeling of despair that cannot be washed off. Poverty, disease, and limited access to medicine and hospitals have ravished these populations and led to moments of outcry from the few who recognize the horrors imbedded in the landscape. Dr. Orbinski is one of those who has come face to face with the ultimate enemy of mankind. He has experienced all of human kind’s darkest instincts and has written a book to help himself make sense of all of the chaos, pain, and mayhem that he has witnessed firsthand. He is described in the film as both cynical and optimistic about what can be done to further ease the burden of suffering that so many must endure on a daily basis. He is cynical about mankind’s ability or interest in solving these glaring problems that continue to plague such large and imposing groups of people.

In Rwanda, he was there during the mass killings that took the lives of at least 500,000 persons. He saw firsthand what politically sanctioned death initiatives can do to an entire population. In this film he bears witness to the suffering simply be describing what he has seen and where he has been. He doesn’t preach any message save compassion for those who are so unduly afflicted and are too weak to establish even a modicum of their rights as participants in the whole human experiment. The film can be seen as an open call to those qualified to help and who are willing to subject themselves to great stress and danger for the pure purpose of saving lives. He never lets the audience forget just how treacherous this particular life can be but he also reminds them that without the continuing efforts of doctors, scientists, and others the situation would be a whole lot worse.

Overall, this film is yet another reminder of the struggle for decency in embattled regions that continues to seem like an almost unwinnable situation. Nevertheless, it puts forth a strong case that despite all of the horrors and difficulties the work remains and will always remain paramount because to do nothing is to sanction the atrocities, the sickness and the death. Dr. Orbinski is an example of a lone individual who has chosen to put himself at risk in a true humanitarian sense and has come back from his experiences with enough material to forge a book that will undoubtedly shed even more light on various health crises that continue to plague various regions throughout the world.