With Heart and Soul

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They are well-known all over the world. TIME Magazine has featured them on its cover. Far from the comfort of their consulting rooms, in the midst of war and natural disasters, these doctors share the lives of their patients. Committed to medicine, the Hippocratic Oath and professional secrecy between doctor and patient, this kind of care is open to all. There are two billion people in the waiting room. Our cameras follow the doctors, probe into their daily lives and their dreams. Instead of the usual pictures of emergency treatment, they will show everyday life in the field: the quiet times, the doubts, the joys, the moments of weakness. "Doctors without Frontiers" has become the first world-wide organization for non-governmental medical aid. In 2001 it celebrates its 30th anniversary. This is the opportunity to look closely at a humanitarian generation which has been deeply involved with world events: earthquake in Nicaragua, tornados in Honduras, war in Lebanon, refugees in South-East Asia, boat people, war in Afghanistan, famine in Ethiopia, civil war in Nicaragua and Kurdistan, natural disasters in Mexico, Salvador, Bangladesh and even Armenia and Iran, famine in Sudan, aid to the poor and needy. We will tell the story of their incredible adventure. This diversity of personalities and experiences is one of the main features of the film. The frontiers between medicine, humanism, politics and media seem to be non-existent. Only the dream, a kind of lyrical obsession, remains. We try to paint a portrait of this universal and impressive history in a series of personal accounts. We see how the initial "without frontiers" concept developed, the evolution of the activities, the successes and failures, the ethics and errors.