Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma (2008) User Reviews

The Story of Haunted Humanitarian Hero

[JustCuriosity · 9/10 · 10 March 2008]

Triage had its regional premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. It is a fascinating film of a man who has confronted man's inhumanity to man and is haunted by the horrors that he has witnessed. Canadian doctor James Organski, who went on to serve as the international President of Doctors without Borders, served with that same organization amidst the horrors of the famine in Somalia in 1993 and the depths of that hell of earth known as the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. He saw more evil that most of us confront in a lifetime.

The documentary documents his return trip - both physically and psychologically - as he goes back to Somalia and Rwanda as he struggles to write his memoir recounting the evil that he has witnessed. He is struggling with the ghosts of the past as he attempts to move forward intellectually. Dr. Organski, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for Doctors without Borders in 1999, is one of those unsung heroes that most of us have never heard of.

This is a film that should be viewed widely, because it recounts some of the most awful events of recent history which were ignored by the so-called civilized world at the time and are slowly being forgotten by most of humanity. We should all be more aware of these horrors so that we can hope to prevent their repetition in the future. Triage is a film that deserves to be seen more widely. It should be made available for educational use as well so that young people can be made aware of these evils as those who are brave enough to stand up to the evils as well. We must never forget what happened and those who stood up and attempted to preserve and defend humanity in the middle of hell.

Watch this.

[darriuk · 9/10 · 16 December 2008]

An incredible movie and very moving. For someone like me who knows almost nothing about events in Rwanda and Somalia over the last 15 years, this is shocking stuff.

This is no history lesson though. We are left entirely in the dark about the root causes and political decisions that lead to the two catastrophes into which the protagonist, Dr. James Orbinski, put himself: anarchy and famine in Somalia, and 100 days of genocide in Rwanda (which, according to the film, killed approx 800,000 people). No, there's not much political analysis asking why things got so bad, rather the film asks "how do we act once things get really bad?", and the internally raging Orbinski is our proxy moral compass as he revisits his past. Describing one desperate scene where his team saved a young girl and her dying mother from "genocidaires" while dodging bullets, he frowns and says "This isn't heroism, this is normal". Trying to understand the killing he asks "Would I kill to save my family?", then imagining the scene, replies "Yes I would".

The film probes the events in Rwanda and Somalia by looking at the effects on the people who were there on the ground, both survivors and NGO workers (though not the genocidaires, who are not encountered on Orbinski's return visits, at least not on camera). These meetings between Orbinski and his former colleagues and patients are the raw material from which we instinctively try to make sense of the killing. But it's not possible. If there are reasons for it they are not here. Instead we are left to absorb the characters and their stories, and dwell on the awesome cruelty that we nearly all blithely ignored at the time.

Courage, Testimony, Honesty, Truth. Graphic truth

[JonahVarque · 9/10 · 9 November 2009]

This is one of those films that all of the world's citizens should be required to watch at least once in their lives. There may be no more than 4 other important films on that list.

Orbinski's international career is examined in a series of vignettes. Return visits to Somalia and Rwanda where he worked about 15 years previously with Doctors Without Borders; then brief notice of his acceptance of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize as president of Doctors Without Borders, then some mention of what he is doing now as founder of the AIDS assistance NGO Dignitas.

The film focuses on the horrors he saw and the impossible choices he had to make as a medical service provider in 2 civil wars. The film is nowhere near as preachy as it could have been. It does not have to be. By depicting more or less factual reminiscences, each viewer cannot help but come to important conclusions by themselves about what life is about and what is important in that life.