♪♪
MAN: There is a concert.
Why do you have to entertain them
to get them to listen?
It's just good to remind them
what else human nature is capable of.
You should come.
Come with me.
I don't have to.
I just read your beautiful speech.
[ Clock ticking ]
[ Orchestral music playing ]
[ Children laughing ]
WREN: Especially when he would take me with him...
I cherished the days with my father.
It has been said that only death can keep
a father from his daughter.
Until my own father died at 80...
it was life, saving a life,
that kept us apart.
Growing up, every day
I thought about what I was going to be,
where I would leave my mark,
how I would...
[ Sighs ] ...save the world.
Before I met Miguel,
I was an idea I had.
I didn't really exist.
[ Applause ]
Special UN representative,
and the daughter of MDM co-founder,
Dr. Peter Petersen,
please welcome Dr. Wren Petersen.
[ Applause ]
Bronte once wrote...
"I could not, in those days, see God for His creature."
[ Machine gun fire ]
[ Screaming ]
[ Machine gun fire continues ]
[ Indistinct commands into radio ]
Open, open, open!
[ Helicopter flying overhead ]
[ "Makambo" by Geoffrey Oryema playing ]
Come on! Come on! Get him, get him, faster!
Faster, get him fast. Prep for trauma.
Prep for trauma, table four. Table four.
[ "Makambo" by Geoffrey Oryema continues ]
[ Mortars firing ]
[ People screaming ]
Okay, everybody, focus. Focus.
[ Sighs ]
Dress it.
Food. Shelter.
Security. We all need safety.
Show of hands, who believe the bowl is full.
[ Laughter ]
How quickly you change your story, eh? Hmm?
Who believes it's full?
Definitely? Definitely.
I hear "definitely."
Aww!
GIRL: I did not see that coming.
See? Look at that.
What does this tell you?
I know, I know, I know.
Mm-hmm?
There is always room for more in the glass.
He always gets the answers, right? Yes.
I can tell.
I think it means if we don't put our big rocks in first,
they'll never fit.
- [ Laughter ] - [ Clapping ]
♪♪
[ Children laughing ]
[ Playfully yells ]
[ Children laughing ]
[ Playfully yelling ]
[ Helicopter whirring ]
MAN OVER RADIO: First time the U.N. ever let refugees
inside a base... It's packed.
Everybody outside of the base
is getting whacked by the opposition.
MAN 2: Copy that. Living the dream.
Mission Control to Helicopter-0-0-Romeo.
Declare mission directive. Over.
UNMISS Control.
Pick up and transport MSF personnel.
Medical emergency, Nuba Mountains region.
MAN OVER RADIO: 0-0,
we have active fire on the west-southwest face.
Approach LZ from north. Over.
MAN 2: Copy on that. I see your smoke.
[ People chatting ]
[ Helicopter approaching ]
[ Shouting ]
I'm Mahmoud Idris.
Dr. Miguel Leon.
I'm the guy that brought him his Chili Pepper CDs
into Juba last year.
[ Baby crying ]
Take the baby with you, please. Take the baby with you, please.
We're not going to Juba.
We're going to someplace bad.
Take that baby.
The trip last year, I brought you the Chili Peppers CDs.
- I'm that guy. - Let's get out of here.
All right. Moving time!
[ Screams ]
♪♪
PILOT: Look at that shit.
They fucking burned them to death.
This is why I smoke weed. Mary Jane.
♪♪
[ Zipping ]
This person has a gunshot in the abdomen.
Is that the daughter?
Put her in a line and start drawing her blood.
[ Bells chiming ]
[ Elevator dings ]
- Wren! They've already started. - That's all right.
This meeting is a distraction we don't need.
Make sure I have
all the East Africa assessments right after.
MAN: Increase in access to anti-retroviral drugs
by eight million.
Eight sub-Saharan countries where malaria deaths
have been cut by 75%.
WREN: I know, I know.
Child mortality rates, health education, education for girls,
improving peacekeeping missions... I can read.
Wren, everyone, we're in a budget crisis,
and under attack by a world of impatient,
non-solution-oriented critics.
Just get a few "good news" stories out there.
Is our mission serious enough
that we can be forthcoming with its failings
alongside its boasts?
Wren, do you not see our mission as a serious one?
WREN: Of course I do, Ivan.
Saving lives is a serious mission.
For that matter,
every single human interaction that changes things is.
- MAN: Ivan... - No, I'm not finished.
I'm sorry, but every time
we release statements like these,
we lose all credibility.
Just...
Can we be as honest with the media
as I believe most of us
in this room are with ourselves?
That's it.
Ivan, how about this--
Wren sits down and writes another draft
that accomplishes exactly what she's saying?
And we'll join in a touch
of that self-flagellation with her?
- [ Scoffs ] - Good by you, Wren?
Yes.
[ Heart monitor beeping ]
WOMAN: Doctor, he's exsanguinating.
[ Miguel sighs ]
[ Rapid beeping ]
[ Sighs ]
♪♪
WOMAN: It is not your fault.
She has already lost
her mother and sister in the raids.
[ Breathing heavily ]
Can I take it? Can I take it?
WOMAN: Shall I inform the girl, Doctor?
MAHMOUD: Let Dr. Miguel inform her in the morning.
[ Radio playing ] ♪ You are loved ♪
♪ Why can't you love me, too, yeah, yeah? ♪
♪ It's you, it's you, it's you I love ♪
♪ Why can't you love me, too? ♪
♪ It's you, it's you, it's you I crave ♪
♪ You got me in a daze, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ It's you, it's you, it's you I crave ♪
♪ You got me in a daze ♪
[ Mournful music playing ]
PILOT: Evening.
[ Sighs ]
You know that girl I was dancing with?
She watched her sister get raped until she died.
Okay.
She was raped also.
I mean, they ripped her from her vagina to her anus.
But, I mean, she's here dancing... with me.
I mean, she leaks urine, but she's dancing.
I mean, she's-- she's beautiful.
Peace.
[ Mortars firing ]
[ People and animals clamoring ]
[ Gunfire ]
♪♪
MAN: It's another attack! They're going for the food!
Stop shooting! Stop shooting!
[ Yelling ]
[ Grunts ]
Why are they doing this?
MIGUEL: Stay here. Don't move.
- [ Bullet ricochets nearby ] - Baba el?
Your father-- Oh, God! Your father, I know, I know.
Stay down, lay flat.
Father...
[ Music rises clamorously ]
[ Screaming ]
[ Gunfire continues ]
PILOT: They're going after my machine!
Fuck that noise!
[ Gunfire ]
You motherfuckers!
[ Mournful music resumes ]
[ Sobbing ]
I'll think of you. You were here.
Your family was here.
I'll remember.
Fuck!
[ Indistinct intercom announcement ]
[ Police siren ]
[ Rattling noise ]
[ Air blowing ]
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
Pardon. Un doble espresso?
S'il vous plait.
Un por...
Merci.
[ Typing ]
WOMAN: Some messages.
The Cape Town flight is all set for next week.
Mandy at MDM said
that everybody there is very excited
that you're coming.
Uh... do you want to return to Geneva immediately
after the event...
or the next day?
You okay?
Check on flights to Cape Town for tomorrow.
I want to get on the next available.
Okey-dokey.
Open or closed?
Okay.
I'll take whatever victory I can get.
WOMAN: That's what I'm talking about.
They refunded us for next week's flight.
Bumped it up to tomorrow night.
Can I ask why you're leaving so far in advance?
[ Sighs ]
Okey-dokey.
I'll just trust you on that one, and I'll hold the fort here.
You're an angel. Good night.
WOMAN: Night.
[ Faucet running ]
[ Knocking at the door ]
Wren?
Wren.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I wrote you a letter.
[ Call to prayer ]
[ Indistinct communication into walkie-talkie ]
WREN: After my father's death, I became his genetic surrogate.
Natural disaster zones had permitted me
rare visitations with him.
The war zones he forbade me in his life
were my inheritance upon his death.
[ Honking ]
[ Yelling ] Put your weapons away...
- MAN: Are you Dr. Petersen? - WREN: Yes.
Around the side entrance is my office.
I'll meet you there. I'm sorry!
Let's go. Come on!
MAN: Replacing fluids too quickly causes heart failure.
- WOMAN: I know. I know. - MAN: Right?
MAN: Okay. Are you a volunteer?
WREN: I was invisible.
Take responsibility.
Only the daughter of their inspiration,
less than invisible...
...a tourist.
MIGUEL: Ellen, come here.
Ellen--
WREN: Sometimes a face is an illusion.
MIGUEL: You are the supervisor...
WREN: His instantly struck me...
as that of the male child I'd been hoped to be...
...your Paris nightclubs
and listen to that stupid fucking house music.
WREN: ...instead of an invisible...
blonde... girl.
Then I was seen.
- Surprise. - Wren!
Mmm.
So, what are you still doing here?
I thought you left already.
Maybe I'm a masochist, but I still want
to be like my sister, cousin.
[ Chuckles ] Oh, my.
Get me into some scrubs.
[ Call to prayer ]
[ "Otherside" by Red Hot Chili Peppers ]
♪ I heard your voice through a photograph ♪
♪ I thought it up and brought up... ♪
You got in today?
Yes. It's been years since I've practiced.
I've come to see Dr. Brown,
but he's busy, so I thought I'd lend a hand.
Welcome.
Thank you.
[ Tapping on glass ]
[ Gloves snapping ]
Can you finish cleaning those wounds?
All right, Doctor.
It's become too dangerous for the organization
to stay operational here in Monrovia.
I couldn't be more sorry.
The LURD already control the ports.
That's what I'm hearing.
And that there's no food anywhere.
Ahh...
We can't stay here.
I'm going to take a group of vulnerables
that the Protection staff have identified.
We'll follow the exodus to the border.
[ Explosion ]
- [ Glass tinkles ] - It's okay.
It's okay, it's okay. It's okay, it's okay.
[ "Scar Tissue" by Red Hot Chili Peppers ]
Chili Peppers, best medicine.
[ People shouting ]
♪♪
WREN: The explosion of a mortar so close to the hospital
suggested Monrovia may be overrun
by rebels within weeks...
if not days.
As our foreign doctors and refugees
packed their belongings,
my young cousin Ellen gave me a tutelage
in the personalities that would be accompanying me
in the exodus to Sierra Leone.
Lovely man.
He came here when his wife died.
Can you guess his name?
Love, Dr. Love.
That's perfect.
Dr. Leon, he's an amazing doctor.
We had to drag him from the rural areas
to work in the city.
You can fire me, but I'm going to stay.
Listen, it's safer than what you're doing,
taking the road.
And if things get crazy, I can flirt with a U.N. guy
and get on one of those helicopters.
Excuse me, ladies.
My father asked me to tell you everyone is ready.
And who are you?
Samuel Posas Palleh, son of the great Mousa Palleh.
That's your dad right there?
SAM: Yes.
- [ Chuckles ] - Come, let's go.
♪♪
Come on. Let's go. Jesus is waiting.
He waits, and He waits, even for you.
I was sorry to hear we're pulling out,
but it has gotten very sketchy.
You will have no cell phone coverage
once you cross Po River Bridge.
Your driver has a satphone,
so call me if there's any problem, okay?
WREN: God and colonialism had visited upon Liberia,
a particular ugliness in the nature of their war,
heroic adults assassinated or forced to flee,
and children stolen from their families,
compelled into battle,
provided with a myth of their own invincibility.
Those not convinced of invincibility
bravely pled for the help we could no longer offer.
We were rewarded with a spontaneous monsoon...
[ Snores ]
[ Startles ]
[ Giggles ]
...until the weather itself became invisible.
[ Tires squealing ]
Get out of the car! Get out of the car!
- Get out of the car! - [ Gunfire ]
[ Yelling ]
NGO! We're NGO!
NGO!
[ Yelling ]
[ Crying ]
[ Shouting ]
Okay, move! Go! Go!
WREN: He's dead. They took his satphone.
♪♪
- We are on our own. - WREN: Are you okay?
- It's getting dark soon. - Yeah, yeah.
A piece of the seat bit me.
Okay, grab everything. Take that big one.
MAN: Let's go.
We have to go, before they come back.
They might come back.
- What can I take? - Come on!
- Go with him. Go up. - Come, kid. Come.
Go up, go straight. Go to the right.
Go, be careful.
MAN: Sorry you had to visit us in this time of trouble.
Maybe you can come back some other time.
LOVE: How many cards do you have?
Sam, switch to green. We're near the road.
- MIGUEL: Dr. Love? - Where did you go?
Mousa, we have an injured woman. Machete wound.
The villagers brought a woman from the road.
Machete. We'll need an IV and an anesthetic.
- Okay. - They took all the anesthetic.
I've got some Xylocaine
and some Ketamine in my backpack.
Good. Bring everything you've got.
This way, Dr. Love. Dr. Love! This way!
What's going on?
Just watch your sisters. We'll be back.
MIGUEL: Get the tarp up. I don't want her getting wet.
- Get her up. - Okay.
Help me. One, two, three... Take it easy.
- Gloves? - Gone.
- Betadine? - Also gone.
I knew I brought that whiskey for something.
- Farber, get the line in. - Can you hold that for me?
- Gloves? - Everything gone.
Here, can you hold that for me? Thank you.
- [ Crying out ] - Take the whiskey.
What's wrong, Mommy?
She's pregnant.
- Superficial... - And she's bleeding.
- Winnie! - Yes, Ma'am?
- WREN: Come here! Come quick! - WINNIE: Coming, Ma'am.
- Come, hold this leg. - Try to hold your arm still.
All the way up.
No damage to the carotid. The sutures are overlapping.
[ Grunts ]
This baby's head's wedged right in there.
- I'm pulling out clots. - It's an abrupted placenta.
Okay, hold her flat.
Wait. What are we doing?
I'm going to section her.
You're going to section her here?
Yeah. Give her the Ketamine.
Listen to me. Listen, listen.
Listen, we'll do everything we can
for you and your baby, okay?
Okay?
Assatu, you're going to be comfortable,
you're going to be strong,
and everything's going to be okay.
Okay, Ketamine's going in.
[ Vehicle rattling ]
- Refugees. Okay. - Okay, everyone. I'm cutting.
[ Mousa singing calming song ]
[ Miguel encouraging ]
Okay, here we go.
MIGUEL: Okay, pull.
LOVE: I'm closing the neck wound.
[ Grunts ]
- Wow, it's really wedged. - WREN: Yeah.
Really wedged.
Try to manipulate the baby's head upward, please.
Okay.
Winnie. Legs up again. All the way up.
Yes, Ma'am.
[ Grunts ] Up!
MIGUEL: More. Push.
[ Grunts ] WREN: Wait.
[ Both grunting ]
Okay. Head is out!
- Syringe! - Head is out.
Okay. Fast.
Okay.
I have to rotate the baby.
Okay. Okay, little one.
Baby's out.
Switch all to green.
Okay, thank you.
Okay. Okay. Cutting.
- How is that? - Pulse rate is slow.
Let me. Let me.
♪♪
[ Baby crying ]
Assatu's baby is doing well. Assatu can rest.
[ Hushing ]
[ Wren sighs ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Both chuckle ]
We both could do with that bottle of whiskey, huh?
The sacrifices we make, huh?
[ Chuckles ]
[ Sighs ]
Are you kidding me?
Is nothing sacred to you?
Everything is sacred to me.
Everything.
MAN: There's a path that zigzags the creek over there.
I think that's the quickest route to Sierra Leone.
- Through the jungle? - Through the jungle.
You've got to be kidding.
Don't think that the paths aren't known by the bad guys.
When you run into them out there...
♪♪
[ Grunts ]
There you go.
Yeah.
Thank you, in the name of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus?
I prefer it in the name of you and me.
Hey, listen, last night, I-- I overreacted.
It's all right.
You were embarrassed to kiss me
with unbrushed teeth, that's all.
♪♪
My father came and went a lot. What does that tell you?
That we had different experiences, that's all.
- And? - [ Chuckles ] And nothing.
It's nice to share different experiences.
[ Contemplative music playing ]
MIGUEL: What about your mother?
WREN: She had an affair.
And then another affair.
Maybe my dad was away too much.
After my father died, my mother wrote me.
She told me she missed him.
I don't even think she called him for years.
She told me...
if I wanted a repetitive life, I should see many men.
But if I wanted endless diversity...
I should stay with one.
What do you think?
Was your father away too much?
I think children spell love...
T-I...
M-E.
But I'm not a child anymore.
[ Frogs croaking ]
[ Tense music playing ]
[ Call and answer chanting ]
[ Tense music continues playing ]
WREN: Miguel's attentions diminished my fears
in this terrifying place.
This place. At this time.
Where children, fed mixtures
of amphetamines and hallucinogens,
had been convinced by commanders
that by the eating of enemy hearts
would they be made invisible in battle.
I got it.
- Okay? - Don't stand there.
[ Sporadic drum beats ]
[ Drum beats continue ]
[ City noises ]
[ "Exile" by Geoffrey Oryema playing ]
[ "Exile" by Geoffrey Oryema continues playing ]
I'm going to see if I can use
a satphone to get through to Paris.
Okay.
Hey. Another one of Dr. Leon's babies.
This one is both of ours.
- Dr. Leon! - I've got a patient.
- Where should I take her? - Medical NGOs are this way.
They'll set up a tent for you.
Hi. I'm project manager at MDM.
How can we help you today?
We have a few refugees with us.
I was hoping to use your satphone.
[ "Exile" by Geoffrey Oryema continues playing ]
IRC requested us to implement operations here.
Oh, really? What did you tell them?
HQ approved, so I volunteered us.
"Us"?
Mm-hmm.
All of us, the four MDM staff that came with us.
Okay.
That's nice.
So, I've been demoted to general practice.
[ Scoffs ]
- Are you okay with that? - Yes, I'm okay with that.
So, we're staying here.
Okay.
You should try and get some sleep.
I'm not tired.
So, we're both not tired.
MIGUEL: Mm-hmm.
[ Zipping ]
Are you a playboy, Miguel?
I'm not playing anything here, Wren.
[ Laughs ]
[ Rapidly brushing ]
[ Laughs ]
[ Chuckles ]
[ Unscrews bottle, pours ]
Hmm. Hmm!
[ Gargling ]
[ Spits ]
[ Exclaims ]
[ Sets basin down ]
Ahh!
[ Peaceful music playing ]
WREN: We established a clinic in the camp.
Initial supplies had arrived quickly by UN transport,
and we made requests of our own logisticians
to set up sustainable supply-chains.
There is something in propinquity,
perhaps not to be confused with fate.
Only four days before our arrival
in Sierra Leone,
I'd been a non-practicing medical professional
who'd taken on the administration
of my father's organization from an office in Paris.
Now, I find myself reliving for the first time...
his extraordinary life.
I knew of my mother's affairs.
But what of my father's?
Had he had a lover as I had become Miguel's?
The resilience and beauty
offered by the refugees of war
inspired an intoxication of intimacy.
And in this place of so much war...
[ Laughing ]
...had I found peace?
Or was I trading on Miguel's?
I want to see you without me in the room.
♪♪
[ Miguel grunts ]
[ Laughs ]
I know you are watching.
[ Laughs ]
♪♪
I can feel you breathing.
You there?
[ Sighs ]
[ Gate screeching ]
[ Clock ticking ]
[ Clock tick echoes ]
You're killing yourself.
I just wanted to say good-bye...
and, uh, give you this back.
You don't want to know what I wrote in the letter?
No.
All right.
Do...
...what's in the letter.
Whatever it is.
[ Laughs ]
I can't.
I can't, it's not...
...something I can "do."
Never mind.
- What were you gonna say? - It can't just be said.
Like what's in the letter can't be "done"?
Wren, I don't know if it's all right
to have said what's in the letter,
so I don't know if I have the license to do it.
[ Exhales, inhales shakily ]
I realized a while back what it really was, the truth.
What was the truth?
You never loved me.
♪♪
[ Opens door ]
I did love you, Wren.
- No. - MIGUEL: I do love you!
Ten years... You show up after ten years.
Expecting what?
- I do love you, Wren. - You don't love me!
You don't even know me!
I'm different now, that's what happens!
[ Woman vocalizing on soundtrack ]
Don't you fucking take another step towards me!
What? What? Or you'll what? You'll shut down?
Are you sure it's me that made you shut down?
Wow.
Bravo! Bravo! Is that what you learned to do?
Is that what you've taught yourself to do?
Make yourself strong enough to black out
what really fucked us up?
Stop for a second!
[ Keening ]
Wren, Wren, removing yourself, blocking out does not change it.
That's not gonna make you happier.
Take it from me, I know it.
Wow. That's very good. Way better than me.
Wren.
Wren! Don't shit on what it was.
We can't be explained away with those short little sentences
like "You never loved me." Don't.
Don't die in yourself like those sheep
in their comfortable fund-raising fucking lives!
That's not you, Wren.
And I do know you, that's not you.
And if it was me that changed you...
Fuck me. Don't let that happen.
That would be a great loss.
Fuck.
[ Moans ]
♪♪
[ Sniffling ]
WOMAN: Excuse me, Miss.
Our school is raising money, an organization that...
Bless you. Bless you in the name of Jesus.
What about in the name of you and me?
Mm.
Thank you, Miss.
PA: First-class boarding announcement,
Geneva to Cape Town.
[ Girls singing in foreign language ]
ATTENDANT: We hope you have a pleasant flight.
Flight time will be 11 and 15 minutes to Cape Town,
arriving 2:47 p.m. local time.
[ Contemplative music playing ]
[ Seagulls crying ]
WREN: I learned that Miguel
had been raised as a child of the state,
orphaned in Spain's transition to democracy,
and that out of that he put himself
through medical school with the highest honors.
It occurred to me that growing up in such a way,
he was not subject to the contradictions
and hypocrisies
that we, who'd been raised in comfort,
too often accept.
Hello, Oom Pieter!
Hello, Miss Peterson!
Good to see you!
- Ja, dankie. - [ Chuckles ]
Is the key in the same place?
Ja, welcome!
Thank you!
[ "Tajabone" by Ismael Lo playing ]
[ Keys jingle ]
Did I have the wrong date?
[ Yawns ]
I thought you were coming next week.
I didn't call on purpose so you wouldn't fuss.
I was at the market.
My friend came over to me and said,
"You won't believe who has just driven through town."
So, I get groceries.
I make us dinner.
I'm not hungry.
It doesn't matter.
I make us dinner,
and you eat with me.
[ "Il pleut dans ma chambre" by Charles Trenet playing ]
[ Clangs ]
[ Muttering ]
Too dark in here.
Ay yi yi!
Ah, c'est...
[ Scoffs ]
Three days of depressions too many.
Eat.
I will...
[ Speaks Afrikaans ]
Sarie... leave them... really...
I leave...
...in one minute.
You don't have to do that...
[ Speaks Afrikaans ]
OOM PIETER: Just a second! Don't say "thank you."
Just a second, I'll get Sarie. Excuse me!
Sarie!
[ Footsteps ]
[ Door opens ]
He's here...
[ Footsteps on stairs ]
[ Door creaking ]
I'm very sorry Miss Peterson,
I asked him to wait.
Please, Mister, please come back down.
This is not right.
It's okay, Oom.
It's okay.
Go!
[ Sighs ]
I'll just leave this here.
Come over here.
Closer.
Wren, that couldn't be the last time
we saw each other.
[ Inhales ]
Just do normal things.
[ Chuckles ]
WREN: Mm.
[ "Otherside" played on cello ]
How did you know I'd be here?
Well, I have my sources.
Wow.
Yes, I do.
Here I go again.
♪ I heard your voice through a photograph ♪
♪ I thought it up and brought up the past ♪
♪ Once you know you can never go back ♪
♪ I've got to take it on the other side ♪
♪ Centuries are what it meant to me ♪
♪ A cemetery where I marry the sea ♪
♪ Stranger things could never change my mind ♪
♪ I've got to take it on the other side ♪
♪ Take it on the other side ♪
[ "Otherside" played on acoustic guitar ]
LOVE: Women assaulted and raped
walking to the latrines in the dark.
This light will be very good.
It won't stop every problem, but it helps.
WREN: Shall we toast? Can I join the party, huh?
"And the Lord said..."
"Let there be light."
Ah, very good.
Who knows the Genesis chapter from the Bible?
The first chapter, who knows it, huh? Sam!
You do.
[ Laughing ]
Very good!
Why haven't you married?
You want us married?
Yes, I want that for you.
Life is hard.
You need another person to share it with.
All right, then.
Let me see. Who can I grab?
- I'm gonna just grab... - It is not grabbing.
♪♪
It is loving.
Loving.
What?
- [ Laughs ] You have no idea! - I did not come alone.
Someone's here to see you.
Oh, my God! Ellen!
I didn't know you were still in the country.
ELLEN: Hi.
What are you doing here?
- Miguel's with you? - Uh-huh.
Are you all right?
No, I'm not all right. I knew better.
I knew better than to have stayed.
- Still here. - I see, I see.
You're together, right?
Mm-hmm.
That's what I heard.
Nice of you to have gotten word to me.
Did he ever mention we'd been together
for the past year before you came?
[ Scoffs ] I should have known, though.
With some people, it's drugs, others, it's alcohol,
and with Miguel, it's women.
- How he... - Copes, right?
And I knew it, so what am I saying is...
I didn't... I didn't realize.
I just thought you'd be the one person
who wouldn't have...
fallen into...
Psht.
I hate myself like this.
This is what always happened.
It was perfect. Your whole thing, Miguel.
And your position is so clear.
"This is the way I am, so you take it or leave it."
Then I can only end up hating myself
for having accepted that.
Because I... I fucking loved you.
Do you want me to leave?
No. He does his things.
Anyway, the reason I'm here is that...
I tested positive for HIV.
What?
I was hoping the retest would be different,
but then... surprise!
Have you given blood?
Had your blood tested in the last few weeks?
No. I'm gonna give you a second.
Okay. Ellen.
How can I help you? What can I do for you? Tell me.
♪♪
You don't think you were unprotected
in the operating room in some way?
- Got stuck with a needle? - I don't know. I don't know.
But I think you both should be tested.
Or with you, we could fuck. Then we'd be sure.
I want you to have it.
No, I don't.
I just don't want to be alone with it.
And it could be sort of romantic.
I don't like house music.
MIGUEL: I know. I know. I know.
[ Sighs ]
♪♪
What are you thinking, Wren?
I'm thinking I miss my dad.
I never told Ellen I loved her.
Never.
Amazing.
She doesn't even have that.
[ Gloves snapping ]
You told me, "Everything is sacred."
"Everything." That's what you said.
I remember now.
♪♪
Beatrice!
Let me know as soon as you can.
[ Tense, solemn music playing ]
[ Sobbing ]
What are you thinking?
What?
Hmm.
Are you going to spoil it already?
Completely.
[ Chuckles ] That's my girl!
That's my girl.
[ Indistinct play talk ]
[ Laughter ]
Go.
Shh.
[ Whispers ]
[ Wren groans ]
[ Girls giggling ]
Girls... Girls...
I'm sleeping!
Our tests were both negative.
And Ellen landed in Paris.
She's being treated.
For what it's worth, I told Ellen I loved her.
But...
I never...
meant that I loved her as I do love...
...you.
[ Sobs ]
So I know you don't like me very much in this moment.
I understand, but maybe we could just...
get out of the camp for a day and take a drive somewhere.
[ Girls giggling ]
♪ Let's go for a drive now! ♪
[ Laughs ]
Oh, my God. You guys are so annoying!
All right. Listen to me.
I'll go...
because the two of you want me to go. Okay?
[ Stereo playing "Otherside" ] ♪...I don't ♪
♪ I don't believe it's bad ♪
♪ Slit my throat, it's all I ever ♪
- Really? - What?
"Pour my life into a paper cup...
The ashtray's full, and I'm spilling my guts."
[ Laughing ]
Listen. "Still a slut." Pathetic. Pathetic.
My God! She's trying to confuse me.
She thinks wars and women are my heroin.
Wren, listen. Anthony wants to make it on the other side.
Oh, Anthony.
I can feel a song
without it being my autobiography.
- It's universal. - Thank you.
God. Snakes! Snakes!
[ Laughing ]
Come on. Come on. Come here, please. Come here.
[ Sighs ]
I'm gonna kiss you.
- Do you wanna kiss her? - Why do you wanna kiss her?
Because I wanna kiss you!
You're so full of it. Do you know that?
You know what he wants to do?
All he wants to do is kiss. Haaah...
That's it. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me?
Oh, my God! Miguel, put the window down!
It's not funny! God! This is so fucking dangerous!
I thought you were a surgeon!
- [ Miguel shuts off radio ] - [ Laughter stops ]
[ Panting ]
What?
Winnie. Winnie, call it in. Cover the girls' eyeballs.
Cover your sisters' eyeballs now! I'm coming.
Oh, my God.
[ Whispers ] Oh, my God.
[ Gasps ]
♪♪
[ Sighs ]
[ Both sighing ]
- I-- I'm a doctor, okay? - [ Boy makes crowing noises ]
We are here to help the wounded.
We are here-- We are doctors. Doctors. MDM. MDM?
- Miguel. - MDM.
- Okay? We are... - No!
We are here to help the wounded.
WREN: No! No!
- MIGUIEL: Wait! Wait! - No!
Oh, no.
He was running on fumes.
This must be one of the boys who did this.
The villagers must have tried to defend themselves.
- He was left behind. - Over there! Over there!
[ Villager speaking foreign language ]
VILLAGER: Please, Doctor! Doctor! Please, Doctor!
- Okay. Okay. - [ Groaning ]
MIGUEL: Okay. That's burnt.
WREN: Mousa, I wanna get your kids back to the camp.
We need to bring them to the van.
In the back.
[ Panting ]
Hurry.
Bring her in here. Everybody in?
I'm gonna close, okay?
I'm gonna close.
Blood!
I've been asking for blood for the last two weeks.
Yeah. Yeah.
[ Speaking French ]
Syringe, please. Please. Syringe, yeah.
[ Speaking French ]
[ Sighs ]
We have Dulcolax. Great! How did we end up with that?
Do you know its other uses besides constipation?
- Does it have any? - No.
MIGUEL: Okay.
What happened?
Your body shut down, you collapsed.
It's okay, it happens.
I gave you a sedative. Are you okay?
One, two, three, four, five, six... six.
We have enough blood for only one of the patients...
to survive the night. Only one. Okay?
So... do you wanna pick?
It's hard stuff. It's hard stuff.
I'll decide. If you want.
Because if we split it up, no one will make it.
All right? One, Wren, one.
We shouldn't be here, to begin with.
[ Miguel scoffs ]
If you pull us out, we abandon these people
when they need us most.
No! No, we're not abandoning anyone!
We use leaving to call attention to what's happening here.
- We use the press. - Okay.
They will give up on Middle Eastern oil
and come rushing into West Africa.
Come on, Wren.
This?
This feels so futile.
Listen.
We stay here or we go,
not because we think we're gonna save the world. Correct?
So when you're talking about pulling out,
do me a favor and just say it's because you're afraid.
Okay? Or because you want to have a bath.
Or you want them to have a bath. It's okay.
Even if you do get them noticed,
then what happens? What happens?
I've never seen the oppressed not become the oppressors.
Never once.
- Well, then, let's just give up! - What?
Let's just give up!
Let's just pack our stuff and go!
- What are we doing here? - No, no, no, no.
Let's save this man, that girl, this baby. Here, now.
Save them for what? What kind of world?
Theirs.
That's your solution?
Wren, there isn't a solution.
We don't have a solution.
For this? No, there is no solution.
Maybe I'm wrong. Evolution is the solution.
But you have the patience for that?
Oh, my God. They need to evolve?
- You're racist now? - No, no, no!
Hey. I'm not talking about them here.
I'm talking about the unconscious
wealthy people out there!
You think I don't know that?
The Americans, the Europeans, the wealthiest.
The majority here is not greedy.
They're walking out of their homes
and their countries to stay out of the way of war.
- They're living their solution. - Oh, living?
MIGUEL: They should live, that is a solution.
- Live? Live. - MIGUEL: Yeah, live.
Watch the ant crawl up the tree, and dance. Flirt.
Laugh at the baby. Yes, live, in any way they can.
This is the life that was given to them, Wren.
That's brave, Miguel.
Absolves you of ever having to think beyond today.
The West can stop this
if they get involved in the right way.
I am not saying I, personally, am gonna save the world.
I am saying I wanna do anything I can to stop this!
Instead of fooling myself out here playing God
to a lucky few!
You really think I need something for myself?
You don't know a fucking thing about me!
And being inside me is not knowing me, evidently!
Oh, and I don't need them to be like me,
if that's what you meant about the bath!
I've lived in Africa.
I know what these people are up against!
And I'm not, all of a sudden, gonna sit here and say,
"Fuck this! There's no hope!" just to keep you company!
You couldn't try?
Oh, my God.
[ Chuckles ]
[ Wren sighs ]
You don't want to keep me company,
just a little bit?
[ Mousa interrupts ]
I need my prayer mat.
[ Sighs ]
MOUSA: Forgive me.
You're here with us. Thank you.
But you know you can leave at any time.
It is not until you can't leave...
that you can know.
♪♪
[ Sniffles ]
I really thought...
that boy might kill you today.
I'm gonna go and play God
and put some blood into one of those patients.
No. I'll do it.
[ Sighs ]
Wren, I-- I was scared today, too.
All right.
I wanna know what that man's typing is right now.
A pos?
- MAN: Yes. - All right, he's getting all 6.
Prep him, we're transfusing him.
♪♪
[ Honking ]
[ People chatting ]
- MIGUEL: What is it? - FARBER: We gotta move!
WREN: What's the matter?
- FARBER: They need us! - We have to go.
We gotta get across the border.
It's bad. The rebels used a lot of civilians.
WREN: For what?
- Come on! Come on! - Let's go!
LOVE: We can get the details later.
No, no! Winnie go back! Sam, go back!
It's dangerous for civilians. You're not coming! Get back.
WINNIE: You stay with us, Mousa!
People are dying. They need everyone.
It's not safe here.
Young boys rape women in the night.
- We go with Mousa. - No! Everybody...
I am Project Coordinator! I make the decision here!
- SAM: We are brave. - No, Sam!
Hold on. One second, please! Wren, what do you wanna do?
We're not taking the children.
Let's go together. If you decide, we can walk back.
- No! Everybody, stop! - Let's go! People are dying!
MIGUEL: Okay, I'm in the back. Let's go, let's go.
[ Honking ]
[ Contemplative music playing ]
Doctors.
- Doctors. We have to go through. - We have to go!
WREN: There was something unthinking in it,
something blinding in the addiction to emergency,
that we allowed the children to accompany us,
that we unquestioningly re-crossed the border.
It was not Miguel.
I was not myself.
But together, it was need.
And to be needed...
...was everything.
Let's get to work.
[ Quiet, uneasy music playing ]
[ Sighs ]
Let Farber take it.
♪♪
[ Flies buzzing ]
[ Gagging ]
[ Gasping ]
- Dr. Petersen. - WREN: Yes, I'm coming.
Why are there so many young men,
boys with chest wounds?
They were used as human shields by the rebels.
♪♪
LOVE: Really. You know?
MIGUEL: No.
I'll have to read that poem.
I am Malesh Roe.
Where is my daughter Fatou?
Is she living?
[ Fly buzzes ]
She wants to be with her daughter.
If we can find her, and she's alive,
we'll operate.
What did you just say?
She wants to be with her daughter.
Do you want to live?
That's for God.
It's not up to her.
She wants to be with her daughter.
- MIGUEL: Jesus. - That's what she said.
MIGUEL: What?
FARBER: You can't do that. Wren, you can't do that!
What is your daughter's name?
Fatou.
Fatou? Fatou Roe?
FARBER: We don't let the patients decide!
Beatrice. Her daughter's name is Fatou Roe.
Check triage to see if she survived.
BEATRICE: What, now?
Yes, now!
♪♪
We are going to let...
Malesh? Malesh.
...are going to let Malesh be with her daughter.
It's wrong, Wren.
Just for pain.
Matan.
♪♪
I'm not gonna let her suffer through an operation
if she's gonna die anyway.
Get her comfortable right now! Over there!
Who's giving up now?
We have to get into the chest
and clamp the hilum of the 10-year-old.
Are you going to assist me?
Sister, are these all of the people that are here?
The young girls,
the young children that you've seen?
I'm looking for Fatou Roe. Fatou Roe.
Have you seen Fatou Roe?
Wren, we need you. Are you coming in?
I'm looking for a satphone. I have to make a call.
I'm stopping this today.
Are you gonna stop all of this? Great.
We need your help in there now, Wren.
We're not helping!
Okay, fine, pack. Go, leave!
Leave if you can't take it anymore.
Go make your phone call. And if her daughter is alive,
take them back with you to the great West!
Wren, can you please try not to wrestle
your father's ghost today?
Please.
You think you know who I am.
You don't know who I am, Miguel.
And just to be clear,
I hate being told who I am
more than anything in the world.
I'd rather be told what to do
than to be told who or what I am.
Okay. So I will never do that again, okay?
And I will think of...
I will think of lots of things that I can tell you to do,
like-- like sit or work, or...
[ Chuckles ]
I got a little one, there.
- WREN: Hey. - What?
I was just thinking...
you're still perfect to me.
[ Indistinct ]
Are you coming or going?
Lady, you better make your fucking decision!
[ Dr. Love sighs ]
♪♪
[ Sighs ]
LOVE: Wren.
Wren.
MSF wants us to stay.
It is almost curfew for the border until morning.
All right.
We're pulling out.
[ Quiet, turbulent music playing ]
MOUSA: Why haven't you married?
Life is hard.
You need another person to share it with.
[ Quiet, turbulent music continues playing ]
You okay?
I'm all right. You okay?
Mwah!
Ow!
[ Laughter ]
[ Chattering ]
Dad, aren't we gonna leave? Yes?
MOUSA: Yes, we are.
BEATRICE: All the patients in the triage
cleared out a few minutes ago.
They just left.
[ Stereo playing "Raze It Up" by Onyx ]
Let's go. Inside. Get in the car.
Get down! Samuel, get inside, stay down.
[ Clamoring ]
[ Stereo continues playing "Raze It Up" by Onyx ]
[ Yells indistinctly ]
Clear!
Yah!
- [ Turns off engine/stereo ] - [ Crow caws ]
See this one, no?
[ Laughter ]
[ Boy speaks in African language ]
[ Laughter ]
What's you, my brother?
MIGUEL: He's a doctor.
You got anything for us?
Princess... They your toy.
[ Speaks in African language ]
- [ Several urging ] - Move on!
What are you doing? What are you--?
Wren, Wren.
[ All shouting ]
What are you doing? What?
[ Yelling ]
Give me your watch, man!
Ya, Doctor?
Why you wearing my watch?
[ Laughing ]
[ Yelling ]
WOMAN: Didn't you hear the man?
What you need it for? Your time finished.
- Stop! - Wait, wait, wait.
Very funny, Doctor...
[ Speaks in African language ]
Give me your watch, man.
[ Laughter ]
MAN: Give me your shoe!
WOMAN: Give me your shoe also!
Doctor, that's a very nice shoe!
[ Speaks in African language ]
WOMAN: No here.
- SAM: Don't hurt my pa! - Sam.
- MOUSA: Sam, go back! - You.
- You come here. Come. - Our Commander call you.
- WREN: Sam! Sam! - Stand there.
Your pa? He answer for you?
You always do what your pa say?
- Eh? He can't talk? - He can't understand you.
- He's not right in the head. - He can't talk?
Listen. I'll be your pa and your ma.
- MOUSA: Please. - WOMAN: No?
- Then, what you living for? - MOUSA: Please, don't.
- You give your son to me, okay? - Please. Please, don't.
Can you obey somebody that's not your pa?
You think your pa something? Just watch.
- No, no, no, stop! - Miguel! Miguel!
What I witness I'll report!
What she witness, she'll report. Good.
You enjoying it?
- You, slap your pa. - Miguel.
- GI Commando. Slap your pa! - Slap your pa!
- Miguel. - It's okay, Sam. Do it!
Do it.
You slap hard!
- Do it, Samuel! - Goddamn it! Just please stop!
- Slap your pa! - MOUSA: Slap me.
- MIGUEL: Leave the kid alone. - WREN: Stop! He's just a child!
- More hard! Harder! - More!
- Do it. - Slap your pa!
- More hard! - MOUSA: Do it!
- Harder! - Do it!
- Please, stop! - Harder, harder, harder!
Slap him! Harder, harder!
Harder, harder!
Leave the kid alone. Leave him alone.
- Do it! - Harder! Slap your pa!
Slap hard!
Go on. Take this one.
Take the fucking gun, man.
- Take it. - Take the gun, man!
Take it!
[ All yelling ]
[ Indistinct order ]
- MAN: Fire your pa. - WOMAN: Fire your pa.
- WOMAN: Fire your pa! Fire! - Fire your pa.
Fire your pa!
Don't do this! Please don't!
Fire! Fire your pa.
- Leave him alone! - For God's sake!
- Fire your pa. - Fire, fire your pa.
- Fire your pa. - Fire your pa!
Beautiful son. Do it. I love you.
- Fire him. - No, Sam!
- [ Gunshot ] - No!
- Get back! Get back! - Sam! Sam!
What is wrong with you?
- What is wrong with you? - My son!
[ All shouting ]
[ Sobbing ]
[ Groans ]
- [ Whistling ] - [ Cheering ]
You. You snapped the bullet.
[ Engine starts ]
[ Shouting ]
[ Grunts ]
[ Screams with rage ]
[ Panting ]
[ Dark, moody music playing ]
[ Continues panting ]
[ Sobbing ]
No.
No!
[ Engine revving ]
FARBER: Wait, wait. Miguel! Miguel!
Miguel, we're leaving!
What's he doing? Miguel!
BEATRICE: Wren, get inside the car!
Wren!
Go!
[ Wind rustling ]
WREN: I always think...
about how white his shirts were.
His little shirts. Sam.
[ Miguel chuckles ]
How did he always get them so white?
MIGUEL: I think he just had the one.
Cleaned it himself.
You should know I always waited for you,
even though I didn't want to.
I waited for you, too, Wren.
You never came back.
I tried.
I did try, I just...
I knew I would never stay.
To be us and war...
I don't know if there would be an us without war.
Tell me that's not true.
I can't.
Can you?
No.
Tell me that's not true.
It's not true.
Tell me...
Tell me it's not true.
[ Sighs ]
It's... one story, Wren.
What story are you telling yourself now, Miguel?
Hmm?
Is it the one where you ask me
to come back to the field with you?
Yes. I've been thinking about that.
But...
But it would be too much to ask, right?
Yeah.
It would be unfair to me.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
And you? What-- what--?
What story are you telling yourself?
The story where I stay here?
And we have this...
beautiful house in the middle of nowhere
with kids running around?
And you working from home, me being a family doctor?
No.
The one that you belong there.
In the field.
That that's who you are.
[ Sniffles ]
- Yes. - But it scares me.
So much.
I wish I could.
- I wished... - I wish...
[ Wind rustling ]
[ Sighs ]
WREN: When I was a little girl, my father was often away.
I asked him once,
"Dad, what was the most unexpected thing you ever saw?"
He told me he'd been somewhere near Cambodia,
on an island,
supporting the boat refugees in the early '70s.
He was a young doctor tending to an elderly man
sitting against a tree.
He asked the man,
"If you could have anything, what would you want?"
My father assumed it would be food or money...
but the man answered,
"I would like a book of anything
from classic French literature."
The man had been a professor of literature at a university
until the day...
the day he was displaced.
It seems we look at refugees
as if that's all they've ever been.
That they're not like us.
But they are like us.
They're workers...
accountants, teachers, builders, farmers.
They have families.
And they have dreams.
Dreams.
So much of the world today has been parted from its dreams.
Wars attack dreams.
Poverty attacks dreams.
Natural disasters attack dreams.
Disease attacks dreams.
But with your belief...
even more than your money...
they will achieve their dreams, and I'll tell you why.
Because dreams are not luxuries,
any more than refugees are not like us.
They are us.
And, just like ours,
their dreams, more than air itself,
are the single most fundamental of all human necessities.
[ Applause ]
[ "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens playing ]
♪ Now I've been happy lately ♪
♪ Thinking about good things to come ♪
♪ And I believe it could be ♪
♪ Something good has begun ♪
♪ Oh, I've been smiling lately ♪
♪ Dreaming about the world as one ♪
[ Throbbing, dark music playing ]
MIGUEL: "Dear Wren.
All I really wanted to say is...
I know that I will see you again.
I even know when.
I will look out over the desert...
and I will say your name.
And I will see your face...
[ Melancholy music playing ]
...the face of the person who loved me most,
who counted me among the living when I couldn't.
A 20-year old American pilot working with MSF
was evacuating women and children from a school
during the raids.
They were shot down.
All dead.
Miguel was with them.
[ Crying ]
WREN: When I thought of him, I could feel my stomach...
the rows of ribs inside my skin.
I was there, in a way I wasn't when I wasn't thinking of him.
Before I met him, I was an idea I had...
but I didn't really exist.
I could remember who I was by remembering him.
♪♪
[ "Ain't No Reason" by Brett Dennen playing ]
♪ There ain't no reason things are this way ♪
♪ It's how they've always been and they intend to stay ♪
♪ I can't explain why we live this way ♪
♪ We do it every day ♪
♪ Preachers on the podiums speaking of saints ♪
♪ Prophets on the sidewalk begging for change ♪
♪ Old ladies laughing from the fire escape ♪
♪ Cursing my name ♪
♪ I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same ♪
♪ A window and a pigeon with a broken wing ♪
♪ You could spend your whole life working ♪
♪ For something ♪
♪ Just to have it taken away ♪
♪ People walk around pushing back their debts ♪
♪ Wearing paychecks like necklaces and bracelets ♪
♪ Talking about nothing, not thinking 'bout death ♪
♪ Every little heartbeat, every little breath ♪
♪ People walk a tightrope on a razor's edge ♪
♪ Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons ♪
♪ It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen ♪
♪ Or a thought or a word or a sentence ♪
♪ There ain't no reason things are this way ♪
♪ It's how they've always been and they intend to stay ♪
♪ I don't know why I say the things I say ♪
♪ But I say them anyway ♪
♪ But love will come set me free ♪
♪ Love will come set me free, I do believe ♪
♪ Love will come set me free, I know it will ♪
♪ Love will come set me free, yes ♪
♪ Prison walls still standing tall ♪
♪ Some things never change at all ♪
♪ Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all ♪
♪ Keep on building bombs, gonna drop them all ♪
♪ Working your fingers bare to the bone ♪
♪ Breaking your back, make you sell your soul ♪
♪ Like a lung, it's filled with cold ♪
♪ Suffocating slow ♪
♪ The wind blows wild and I may move ♪
♪ But politicians lie and I am not a fool ♪
♪ You don't need no razor nor a three-piece suit ♪
♪ To argue the truth ♪
♪ The air on my skin and the world under my toes ♪
♪ Slavery stitched to the fabric of my clothes ♪
♪ Chaos and commotion wherever I go ♪
♪ Love I try to follow ♪
♪ Love will come set me free ♪
♪ Love will come set me free, I do believe ♪
♪ Love will come set me free, I know it will ♪
♪ Love will come set me free, yes ♪
♪ There ain't no reason things are this way ♪
♪ It's how they've always been and they intend to stay ♪
♪ I can't explain why we live this way ♪
♪ We do it every day ♪♪
[ Ethereal folk music playing ]