German Doctors Without Borders

In the work of Anton Chekov, who was a doctor himself, doctors are plagued by fears and disillusionment. In Henrik Ibsen’s plays, realists demonstrate great hybris in their behaviour, and they are never the proverbial ‘Gods in White’. In German Doctors Without Borders, Tuğsal Moğul employs a historical-literary perspective to cast a look at the present. He turns the spotlight on a cross-section of the daily routines in a modern hospital, from the consultant to the administrative director to the cleaner. Questions come up, about the technical feasibility and necessity of operations, about profit optimisation, and about how far it is possible to reconcile one’s own ideals and aspirations with the tough reality. What emerges is the tightly constructed picture of a system facing imminent collapse, of a marketplace where weaker countries lose out in the competition to secure experts, of a commercialisation of medicine and of inhuman working hours, resulting in doctors ending up needing care themselves.