Dealing with the terminally ill is a rather hard subject, which, very rarely, cinema touches upon, with Wang Bing's “Mrs Fang” being one of the few works to do so. Farida Pacha dares to, however, by focusing on a team of three women, a doctor, a nurse, and a counselor (Maniamma R., Sini Kuriakose, Dr. Reena Sharma) who form a palliative care team in New Delhi, as they provide support and care to terminally ill patients and their families on a daily basis.
“Watch Over Me” is screening at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
Their job is rather hard, as it includes educating the families about the medical care they have to give themselves to the patients, filling paperwork for them to receive medicine, which frequently does not go through, hear both the relatives' and the patients' occasionally desperate plights, while, unfortunately, watching them die little by little, on most of the cases. Through all these, however, the importance of their heroic efforts comes to the fore, as the services they provide, and also the patience, care and attention to all of their patients is indispensable for everyone involved. Furthermore, as they also have to clash occasionally with unwilling patients or relatives who feel guilt for obliging to the will of the ill not to go to the hospital, along with a government that is not able (or willing) to offer help to these people, their task is elevated to herculean proportions.
A realistically dramatic essence permeates Farida Pacha's approach, with the highly contrasted monochrome actually suiting the aesthetics of the film to perfection, and DP Lutz Konermann camera intensifying all the context by getting really close to the patients, although not to a point that becomes obtrusive. This approach also highlights that the director has truly gained the trust of the group and the patients, a feat that seems necessary for the approach implemented here.
The feelings of fear, grief, doubt, guilt and pain are emitted from almost every scene. At the same time, however, there is also laughter, smiles, and occasional moments of happiness, with the documentary also mentioning that one of the patients is actually a success story, even though his case is a drop in the ocean. These moments, provide some much-needed relief from all the pain presented on screen, also highlighting that not everything is completely bleak, at least not all the time. Katharina Fiedler's editing is excellent in that regard, as much as on the overall pace of the movie, which allows the various scenes to present the whole issue with much detail, without lingering intensely however, to each sequence.
Pacha does not dwell on the personal information of her “protagonists”, an approach that allows her to avoid the reef of the poverty porn, and also to focus on the issue as a whole rather than individual cases. At the same time, however, a little more information about the background and the reasoning of the members of the team, for doing such a hard labor, would also be welcomed.
“Watch Over Me” is a very important documentary that highlights a side of life most people do not want to acknowledge even. At the same time, it is also artful in its production values, resulting in a movie that is definitely worth watching.
