DW documentary: ‘A hospital in the shadow of war'
Sudan has been embroiled in a civil war since April 2023. In the Nuba Mountains, a surgeon and his team work to maintain medical care in one of the few hospitals left in the region.
The documentary, produced in cooperation with DW, ZDF and ARTE, portrays the human dimension of one of the world's greatest humanitarian crises.
See below for information on the advanced screening of the documentary.
The people of the Nuba Mountains have been oppressed for decades by the Islamist government in Khartoum, Sudan's capital. To this day, the remote region in the country's south has neither paved roads, nor mobile network coverage – and almost no medical care. One hospital has defied all hardships for almost 30 years.
The situation worsened further with the outbreak of civil war: More than half of the Sudanese population is threatened by famine. 'The statistics of the war are so impossible to imagine, that we looked for a place that let us experience the human dimension. It was in a hospital in the Nuba Mountains that we found stories about people seeking refuge, about people suffering from hunger; but also about an irrepressible will to survive,' say directors Carl Gierstorfer and Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt. In their film, they follow Joseph Yacoub, the only surgeon in the area, through his everyday life running the hospital. He cares for pregnant women, for the wounded and for mothers with malnourished children.
'Sudan is ranked 156th out of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index. There is barely any independent coverage in the country and access is strictly limited. That makes this film all the more important, as it takes a clear look at the humanitarian crisis in Sudan,' says Dr. Nadja, Scholz, Managing Director Programming at DW.
'Yes, the people and their stories are restricted to a tiny setting; a hospital, but the fates of the people there reflect the tragedy of an entire country, torn apart by a brutal civil war,' says DW editor Dieter Roser.
The documentary will appear on the DW Documentaries YouTube channel on June 19, 2025. It will be available in English, Spanish; Arabic, Hindi and Indonesian. It will also be broadcast worldwide on DW's television channels. Journalists interested in viewing the film ahead of time can request a link via e-mail to communication@dw.com.
DW Documentary in English
DW Documental in Spanish
DW Documentary وثائقية دي دبليو
DW Documentary हिन्दी
DW Dokumenter (Indonesian)
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