Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders

Released Jun 4, 2010

1h 33m

Documentary

List

93%

27 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

Four doctors struggle to provide care in war zones.

Read More

Read Less

Critics Consensus

An unflinching, inspiring look at amazing bravery and commitment, Living in Emergency disappoints only in leaving the viewer wanting more.

Read Critics Reviews

Audience Member

Rather than going in depth, "Living in Emergency" is loaded with examples to demonstrate various ways it is difficult to treat people in poor countries as a doctor who is used to the clinical endowment afforded by wealthy economies. It's so demoralizing, most volunteer doctors don't ever do more than one trip. The movie is perhaps too spread out, following four doctors in four different hospitals and hardly adventuring out from their management of chronic frustrations at day-to-day limitations and defeats, but it succeeds in showing us both the emotional toll of being such a doctor and why some are still able do it anyway.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Doctors working for Doctors without Borders, known internationally as MSF (Medicins sans Frontiers), struggle with the challenges associated with practicing medicine under the worst conditions. I think I've fallen in love with Dr. Chiara Lepora. She evinces everything this film is about: she's strong-willed, caring, and aware of the distance between what is and what should be. And she's kinda hot. But what one leaves with is a recognition of both the pressures associated with this work and the rewards, and for me, Lepora became the metonym for all of this. This documentary displays the poverty, the sickness, and the triumph that working with MSF entails, and the doctors emerge as flawed heroes, which, in this world, are the only real kind of heroes that exists. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and if I ever meet Lepora, she's going get my number.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not to be heartless but I didn't find it to be too compelling or say/show anything I wouldn't have guessed or expected.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Though difficult to watch in spots, it is well worth your time.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

Tim G

Depressing yet informative. At the same time limited, unfortunately.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/10/11

Full Review

Audience Member

Anyone who needs a reality adjustment should take a look at this sobering documentary.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

94%

72%

The Betrayal

100%

88%

Precious Life

92%

67%

Motherland

77%

82%

Inside Hana's Suitcase

90%

71%

Journey From Zanskar

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Critics Consensus: Get Him to the Greek Is Certified Fresh

View more photos

Philip French

Guardian

Excellent, no-frills...

Mar 14, 2011

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

An arresting if limited film about the work of the medical-humanitarian group Mdecins Sans Frontires, whose volunteer doctors provide emergency aid in some of the world's poorest, wartorn countries.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 11, 2011

Full Review

Dominic Radcliffe

Little White Lies

Honest, beguiling and unpretentious, but not one for the faint-hearted.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 10, 2011

Full Review

Corey Hall

Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

Some of the purely medical scenes here will test your capacity for human suffering, but that's a minuscule impression of horrors these doctors face daily in far-flung corners of the globe.

Rated: B-

Jun 23, 2010

Full Review

Chris Hewitt

St. Paul Pioneer Press

The documentary's title makes it sound like a hagiographic look at saintly doctors in war zones, but Living takes off the halos and keeps them off.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 18, 2010

Full Review

Annlee Ellingson

Moving Pictures Magazine

An unblinking portrait of the French humanitarian organization and, ultimately, a positive one ... It's a distressing film to watch, but it's not without hope.

Jun 6, 2010

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Four doctors struggle to provide care in war zones.

Director: Mark N. Hopkins
Producer: Erika Bertin, Molly Conners, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Christopher Woodrow, Mark Jonathan Harris
Production Co: Red Floor Pictures, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 4, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2016
Runtime: 1h 33m