In ‘American Doctor,’ U.S. Physicians Trying To Save Wounded Kids In Gaza Get “Caught Between Medicine And Politics” – Sundance Film Festival

The bodies. Six young Palestinian children, maybe three or four years of age, lined up on a gurney, bloody, bandaged and covered in dust from explosions. Never to draw breath again, never to play or laugh or cry, or to reach adulthood.

This is one of the devastating images in American Doctorthe documentary directed by Oscar nominee Poh Si Teng that just held its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It examines the catastrophic loss of Palestinian civilian life in Gaza under Israeli bombardment and invasion, as seen through the eyes of three American doctors who have traveled to Gaza to volunteer their services as experts in trauma response. One of the doctors is Jewish (Dr. Mark Perlmutter), one Palestinian American (Dr. Thaer Ahmad), and one – Dr. Feroze Sidhwa — born to parents originally from Pakistan’s Parsi minority that follow the Zoroastrian religious tradition.

Early in the film, Dr. Perlmutter shows the director a still photo of the six dead children and Teng expresses reservations about sharing it on screen. “Why?” Dr. Perlmutter asks. “Who are you offending?” Teng answers, “I want to protect the dignity of these children.”

Dr. Perlmutter notes, “I got permission from every one of their survivors to put these pictures up. Israel took away their dignity… Their bodies tell the story of this trauma, of this genocide. You’re not doing them a service by not showing them.”

In an interview with Deadline, Teng says, “It’s such a delicate balance of trying to show the reality of what is happening and also preserve the dignity of those in the images. And that was something that we struggled with a lot. I still wrestle with it. I hope it’s enough, and I hope it’s true to what happened as a record, but also that people will watch through to the end. And that’s why that first scene with Mark is where it is.”

American Doctor shows Perlmutter and Sidhwa in the operating theater at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Gaza, working to repair the bodies of severely injured kids. Dr. Ahmad conducted five medical missions to Gaza and is shown in American Doctor trying to reach Gaza once again, but he’s blocked by Israeli authorities. Press notes for the film say Dr. Ahmad was prevented from entering Gaza “because of his Palestinian heritage.”

The documentary also follows the physicians as they make appearances at conferences in the U.S. and as they’re interviewed on American media about what they witnessed in Gaza. Those public appearances in which they speak candidly have earned the doctors praise in some quarters and vitriol in others. In the film, Dr. Ahmad reads an email he received shortly after being interviewed on CNN by anchor-reporter Dana Bash.

“’Doctor,’” the email reads, “‘you’re just as antisemitic as those Hamas terrorists you probably have treated in your practice in Godforsaken Gaza. Why did you not treat Jewish hostages, especially frail old people and babies? Is that not what a doctor is supposed to do? Can’t wait for Hamas to renege on hostage deal before Sunday deadline so that Israel can finish the job of eliminating their presence forever of every single Palestinian member of Hamas. Chew on that fact, doctor.’”

Dr. Ahmad shares his reaction on camera, saying, “This is the kind of really frustrating part of this. I’m not a spokesperson for anybody. I’m not ‘pro’ anything. I’m a Palestinian who wants to see babies that look like my babies not being killed anymore.”

Doctors Ahmad, Sidhwa and Perlmutter could easily have been killed while volunteering their services in Gaza. The film notes 1,700 healthcare workers have lost their lives in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory attack on the occupied territory in October 2023 following the Hamas terror attack on Israel. According to the World Health Organization and the UN, 94 percent of the hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including the Nasser Medical Complex. “The targeted destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system by the Israel Defense Forces amounts to ‘medicide,’” two UN Special Rapporteurs asserted last August.

“We are underlining it again, that hospitals in war zones are being targeted. It’s undeniable,” comments Oscar-nominated producer Kirstine Barfod (The Cave), describing the situation in Gaza as a “big political, global question. What we do and what we have done with this film is that we zoom in in a moment in time and we filmed in real time… We’re seeing this with the eyes of Americans.”

Americans, it’s suggested in the film, need to understand the immense loss of Palestinian civilian lives because of U.S. government support of Israel’s military. “This is what my tax dollars did,” Dr. Perlmutter says, pointing to the photo of the six killed Palestinian children. “That’s what my neighbor’s tax dollars did.”

The U.S. has spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to a report by Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs. “U.S. arms have been central to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Police operations in Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond.”

Teng, who was born in Malaysia and became a U.S. citizen in 2024, says, “What we’re hoping to show our audience, especially Americans, is like, what are we doing about this? Because none of this could continue without our government saying, ‘Go ahead, here’s the green light.’ So, I want to bring it home.”

Along with Teng, American Doctor is produced by Barfod, a Danish producer based in New York, and Reem Haddad, a Palestinian Canadian producer with two decades of experience covering the Middle East and Africa. Executive producers include Simon Kilmurry, Hamza Ali, Rasha Mansouri, Hassan Elmasry, Rami Elghandour, Andreas Dalsgaard, Mehdi Hasan, Juan Pablo Raymond, and Kiran Alvi.

The film has distribution lined up through Watermelon Pictures, a film production and distribution company “rooted in creative resistance,” according to its website. “We aim to entertain audiences and enrich the cultural landscape by promoting stories that reflect the perspectives and experiences of Palestinians as well as other marginalized groups around the world.”

Barfod notes, “We have a global distribution, but we also made a holdback agreement. This means if we sell to HBO or Netflix after Friday [the world premiere]it will go to them first and then eventually it will go back to Watermelon. If we do not sell, then we will do the full release from Watermelon+.”

Teng appears to take in stride the possibility of criticism over the film.

“If there is a legitimate fear to be had, it is as an American and not doing the right thing and speaking because we have so much power from here. I don’t want to think about anything else other than that,” she says. “If you’re so scared about everything, you’re never going to do anything. And there’s no control of external factors, but there’s one thing that we all have control of, and it’s really ourselves. So, I’m just going to go with that.”