On Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m., the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts hosted the second attraction of the 2012 General Education Film Series, "The English Surgeon." The film was shown in LCVA's lower level where large-scale presentations are usually held. Melissa Panzarello, assistant professor of the Longwood University Theatre Depart- ment, presented the film.
"The English Surgeon" is a 2007 docu- mentary centered on its titular character Dr. Henry Marsh and his colleague Dr. Igor Petrovich as they work at a dilapi- dated Ukrainian hospital. The patients who come to Petrovich and Marsh are desperate, not only because of their
poverty, but because of their dire shared condition: brain cancer.
Many times, the already horrible dis- ease is made inoperable by the patients' often cost-related delay in treatment. More than once, the two doctors have to convey the truth as best they can: there is nothing they can do, and the patients will mostly likely die within a matter of years.
Fortunately, this often isn't the case, as proved by Marian, a young man whose tumor and resulting fits of epilepsy Marsh and Petrovich are able to save him from. The surgery is as much a suc- cess for the audience's entrance into the story as it is for the cancer patient.
The weary professionalism of Marsh shines alongside the steady but optimis- tic Petrovich as they cut their way into
the patient and come face to face with the tumor, an otherwise normal-looking part of the brain that Marsh can only identify as cancer for its thickened tex- ture.
Granting entrance into the grim would be metropolises of Ukraine, the film al- lows us access to the hopes and dreams of people like Petrovich who want to heal their nation as best they can, and people like Marsh who have worked long enough with illness to escape death. It is also more than understood that these men's mistakes can cost lives and that they must do everything per- fectly with hand-me-down and self-con- structed surgical tools.
Audience member Dalton Conaway came to see the film as an extra credit activity for his global health class. Con-
away said he "felt that this movie was powerful in [how] it clearly showed the many ways developing countries like Ukraine are really struggling and how they suffer from many types of prob- lems."
Conaway said he thought the two doc- tors improved the country of Ukraine. "Marsh shows his compassion and will- ingness to help the people of Ukraine in his own way, which gives them happi- ness and better health. Petrovich gives all the help he can to his patients as well as a new sense of hope because of the hospital he is planning on opening where he can help even more people who desperately need it."
Conaway added, "'The English Sur- geon' was a great choice for the film series because it shows the true state of
the developing world ... through a non- Hollywood type movie."
Conaway said the film was extreme- ly informative about countries like Ukraine. He added, "I like how people such as Henry Marsh will devote years to a noble cause like his, and I also find it sad and unfortunate that countries around the world have many similar and worse problems than Ukraine's."
In the end, "The English Surgeon" served to inspire both the compassion and concern of its audience members. Through the actions of good people and a snapshot of the decrepit second world, the film successfully makes people bet- ter aware and more involved.
