The Last Face (2016) Movie Script
1
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.
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...
...save the world.
Before I met Miguel,
I was an idea I had.
I didn't really exist.
Special UN representative,
and the daughter
of MDM co-founder,
Dr. Peter Petersen,
please welcome
Dr. Wren Petersen.
Bronte once wrote...
"I could not, in those days,
see God for His creature."
Open, open, open!
Come on! Come on!
Get him, get him, faster!
Faster, get him fast.
Prep for trauma.
Prep for trauma, table four.
Table four.
Okay, everybody, focus.
Focus.
Dress it.
Food. Shelter.
Security.
We all need safety.
Show of hands,
who believe the bowl is full.
How quickly you change
your story, eh? Hmm?
Who believes it's full?
Definitely? Definitely.
I hear "definitely."
Aww!
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.
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.
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.
0-0,
we have active fire
on the west-southwest face.
Approach LZ from north. Over.
Copy on that.
I see your smoke.
I'm Mahmoud Idris.
Dr. Miguel Leon.
I'm the guy that brought him
his Chili Pepper CDs
into Juba last year.
Take the baby with you, please.
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!
Look at that shit.
They fucking burned them
to death.
This is why I smoke weed.
Mary Jane.
This person has a gunshot
in the abdomen.
Is that the daughter?
Put her in a line
and start drawing her blood.
- 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.
Increase in access
to anti-retroviral drugs
by eight million.
Eight sub-Saharan countries
where malaria deaths
have been cut by 75%.
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?
Of course I do, Ivan.
Saving lives
is a serious mission.
For that matter,
every single human interaction
that changes things is.
- 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?
Good by you, Wren?
Yes.
Doctor,
he's exsanguinating.
It is not your fault.
She has already lost
her mother and sister
in the raids.
Can I take it?
Can I take it?
Shall I inform
the girl, Doctor?
Let Dr. Miguel
inform her in the morning.
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
Evening.
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.
It's another attack!
They're going for the food!
Stop shooting!
Stop shooting!
Why are they doing this?
Stay here.
Don't move.
Baba el?
Your father-- Oh, God!
Your father, I know, I know.
Stay down, lay flat.
Father...
Father...
They're going
after my machine!
Fuck that noise!
You motherfuckers!
I'll think of you.
You were here.
Your family was here.
I'll remember.
Fuck!
Pardon. Un doble espresso?
S'il vous plait.
Un por...
Merci.
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.
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?
Okey-dokey.
I'll just trust you on that one,
and I'll hold the fort here.
You're an angel.
Good night.
Night.
Wren?
Wren.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I wrote you a letter.
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.
Put your weapons away...
- Are you Dr. Petersen?
- Yes.
Around the side entrance
is my office.
I'll meet you there.
I'm sorry!
Let's go. Come on!
Replacing fluids too quickly
causes heart failure.
- I know. I know.
- Right?
Okay.
Are you a volunteer?
I was invisible.
Take responsibility.
Only the daughter
of their inspiration,
less than invisible...
...a tourist.
Ellen, come here.
Ellen--
Sometimes a face
is an illusion.
You are the supervisor...
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.
...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.
Oh, my.
Get me into some scrubs.
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.
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.
It's okay.
It's okay, it's okay.
It's okay, it's okay.
Chili Peppers,
best medicine.
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?
Yes.
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?
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...
...until the weather itself
became invisible.
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
NGO! We're NGO!
NGO!
Okay, move! Go! Go!
He's dead.
They took his satphone.
- We are on our own.
- Are you okay?
- It's getting dark soon.
- Yeah, yeah.
A piece of the seat bit me.
Okay, grab everything.
Take that big one.
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.
Sorry you had to visit us
in this time of trouble.
Maybe you can come back
some other time.
How many cards do you have?
Sam, switch to green.
We're near the road.
- 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.
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.
Take the whiskey.
What's wrong, Mommy?
She's pregnant.
- Superficial...
- And she's bleeding.
- Winnie!
- Yes, Ma'am?
- Come here! Come quick!
- 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.
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.
- Refugees. Okay.
- Okay, everyone. I'm cutting.
Okay, here we go.
Okay, pull.
I'm closing the neck wound.
- Wow, it's really wedged.
- Yeah.
Really wedged.
Try to manipulate
the baby's head upward, please.
Okay.
Winnie. Legs up again.
All the way up.
Yes, Ma'am.
Up!
More. Push.
Wait.
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.
Assatu's baby is doing well.
Assatu can rest.
We both could do with
that bottle of whiskey, huh?
The sacrifices we make, huh?
Are you kidding me?
Is nothing sacred to you?
Everything is sacred to me.
Everything.
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...
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?
- And nothing.
It's nice to share
different experiences.
What about your mother?
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
Mm-hmm.
Are you a playboy, Miguel?
I'm not playing
anything here, Wren.
Hmm. Hmm!
Ahh!
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...
...had I found peace?
Or was I trading on Miguel's?
I want to see you
without me in the room.
I know you are watching.
I can feel you breathing.
You there?
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.
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.
I realized a while back
what it really was, the truth.
What was the truth?
You never loved me.
I did love you, Wren.
- No.
- 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!
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!
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.
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.
First-class
boarding announcement,
Geneva to Cape Town.
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.
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.
Is the key in the same place?
Ja, welcome!
Thank you!
Did I have the wrong date?
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.
Too dark in here.
Ay yi yi!
Ah, c'est...
Three days of depressions
too many.
Eat.
I will...
Sarie... leave them... really...
I leave...
...in one minute.
You don't have to do that...
Just a second!
Don't say "thank you."
Just a second, I'll get Sarie.
Excuse me!
Sarie!
He's here...
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!
I'll just leave this here.
Come over here.
Closer.
Wren, that couldn't be
the last time
we saw each other.
Just do normal things.
Mm.
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
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.
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.
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?
- 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.
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?
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.
I know. I know.
I know.
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.
You told me,
"Everything is sacred."
"Everything."
That's what you said.
I remember now.
Beatrice!
Let me know
as soon as you can.
What are you thinking?
What?
Hmm.
Are you going
to spoil it already?
Completely.
That's my girl!
That's my girl.
Go.
Shh.
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.
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.
Let's go for a drive now!
Let's go for a drive now!
Let's go for a drive now!
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?
...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."
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!
Come on. Come on.
Come here, please. Come here.
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!
What?
Winnie. Winnie, call it in.
Cover the girls' eyeballs.
Cover your sisters'
eyeballs now! I'm coming.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
I-- I'm a doctor, okay?
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.
No! No!
- 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!
Please, Doctor!
Doctor! Please, Doctor!
Okay. Okay.
Okay. That's burnt.
Mousa, I wanna get
your kids back to the camp.
We need to bring
them to the van.
In the back.
Hurry.
Bring her in here.
Everybody in?
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.
Syringe, please. Please.
Syringe, yeah.
We have Dulcolax. Great!
How did we end up with that?
Do you know its other uses
besides constipation?
- Does it have any?
- No.
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.
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?
They should live,
that is a solution.
- Live? Live.
- 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.
You don't want
to keep me company,
just a little bit?
I need my prayer mat.
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.
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.
Wren, I--
I was scared today, too.
All right.
I wanna know what
that man's typing is right now.
A pos?
- Yes.
- All right, he's getting all 6.
Prep him,
we're transfusing him.
- What is it?
- We gotta move!
What's the matter?
- They need us!
- We have to go.
We gotta get
across the border.
It's bad. The rebels used
a lot of civilians.
For what?
- Come on! Come on!
- Let's go!
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.
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!
- 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!
Okay, I'm in the back.
Let's go, let's go.
Doctors.
- Doctors. We have to go through.
- We have to go!
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.
Let Farber take it.
- Dr. Petersen.
- Yes, I'm coming.
Why are there
so many young men,
boys with chest wounds?
They were used as human shields
by the rebels.
Really.
You know?
No.
I'll have to read that poem.
I am Malesh Roe.
Where is my daughter Fatou?
Is she living?
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.
- Jesus.
- That's what she said.
What?
You can't do that.
Wren, you can't do that!
What is your daughter's name?
Fatou.
Fatou? Fatou Roe?
We don't let
the patients decide!
Beatrice. Her daughter's name
is Fatou Roe.
Check triage
to see if she survived.
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...
I got a little one, there.
- Hey.
- What?
I was just thinking...
you're still perfect to me.
Are you coming or going?
Lady, you better make
your fucking decision!
Wren.
Wren.
MSF wants us to stay.
It is almost curfew for
the border until morning.
All right.
We're pulling out.
Why haven't you married?
Life is hard.
You need another person
to share it with.
You okay?
I'm all right. You okay?
Mwah!
Ow!
Dad, aren't we gonna leave?
Yes?
Yes, we are.
All the patients
in the triage
cleared out
a few minutes ago.
They just left.
Let's go. Inside.
Get in the car.
Get down! Samuel,
get inside, stay down.
Clear!
Yah!
See this one, no?
What's you, my brother?
He's a doctor.
You got anything for us?
Princess... They your toy.
Move on!
What are you doing?
What are you--?
Wren, Wren.
What are you doing? What?
Give me your watch, man!
Ya, Doctor?
Why you wearing my watch?
Didn't you hear the man?
What you need it for?
Your time finished.
- Stop!
- Wait, wait, wait.
Very funny, Doctor...
Give me your watch, man.
Give me your shoe!
Give me your shoe also!
Doctor, that's a very nice shoe!
No here.
- Don't hurt my pa!
- Sam.
- Sam, go back!
- You.
- You come here. Come.
- Our Commander call you.
- 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.
- Please.
- No?
- Then, what you living for?
- 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!
- Slap me.
- Leave the kid alone.
- Stop! He's just a child!
- More hard! Harder!
- More!
- Do it.
- Slap your pa!
- More hard!
- 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!
- Fire your pa.
- Fire your pa.
- 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!
No!
- Get back! Get back!
- Sam! Sam!
What is wrong with you?
- What is wrong with you?
- My son!
You. You snapped the bullet.
No.
No!
Wait, wait.
Miguel! Miguel!
Miguel, we're leaving!
What's he doing? Miguel!
Wren,
get inside the car!
Wren!
Go!
I always think...
about how white
his shirts were.
His little shirts. Sam.
How did he always
get them so white?
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.
It's not true.
Tell me...
Tell me it's not true.
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.
- Yes.
- But it scares me.
So much.
I wish I could.
- I wished...
- I wish...
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.
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
"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...
...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.
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.
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
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.
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...
...save the world.
Before I met Miguel,
I was an idea I had.
I didn't really exist.
Special UN representative,
and the daughter
of MDM co-founder,
Dr. Peter Petersen,
please welcome
Dr. Wren Petersen.
Bronte once wrote...
"I could not, in those days,
see God for His creature."
Open, open, open!
Come on! Come on!
Get him, get him, faster!
Faster, get him fast.
Prep for trauma.
Prep for trauma, table four.
Table four.
Okay, everybody, focus.
Focus.
Dress it.
Food. Shelter.
Security.
We all need safety.
Show of hands,
who believe the bowl is full.
How quickly you change
your story, eh? Hmm?
Who believes it's full?
Definitely? Definitely.
I hear "definitely."
Aww!
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.
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.
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.
0-0,
we have active fire
on the west-southwest face.
Approach LZ from north. Over.
Copy on that.
I see your smoke.
I'm Mahmoud Idris.
Dr. Miguel Leon.
I'm the guy that brought him
his Chili Pepper CDs
into Juba last year.
Take the baby with you, please.
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!
Look at that shit.
They fucking burned them
to death.
This is why I smoke weed.
Mary Jane.
This person has a gunshot
in the abdomen.
Is that the daughter?
Put her in a line
and start drawing her blood.
- 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.
Increase in access
to anti-retroviral drugs
by eight million.
Eight sub-Saharan countries
where malaria deaths
have been cut by 75%.
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?
Of course I do, Ivan.
Saving lives
is a serious mission.
For that matter,
every single human interaction
that changes things is.
- 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?
Good by you, Wren?
Yes.
Doctor,
he's exsanguinating.
It is not your fault.
She has already lost
her mother and sister
in the raids.
Can I take it?
Can I take it?
Shall I inform
the girl, Doctor?
Let Dr. Miguel
inform her in the morning.
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
Evening.
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.
It's another attack!
They're going for the food!
Stop shooting!
Stop shooting!
Why are they doing this?
Stay here.
Don't move.
Baba el?
Your father-- Oh, God!
Your father, I know, I know.
Stay down, lay flat.
Father...
Father...
They're going
after my machine!
Fuck that noise!
You motherfuckers!
I'll think of you.
You were here.
Your family was here.
I'll remember.
Fuck!
Pardon. Un doble espresso?
S'il vous plait.
Un por...
Merci.
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.
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?
Okey-dokey.
I'll just trust you on that one,
and I'll hold the fort here.
You're an angel.
Good night.
Night.
Wren?
Wren.
I'm leaving tomorrow morning.
I wrote you a letter.
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.
Put your weapons away...
- Are you Dr. Petersen?
- Yes.
Around the side entrance
is my office.
I'll meet you there.
I'm sorry!
Let's go. Come on!
Replacing fluids too quickly
causes heart failure.
- I know. I know.
- Right?
Okay.
Are you a volunteer?
I was invisible.
Take responsibility.
Only the daughter
of their inspiration,
less than invisible...
...a tourist.
Ellen, come here.
Ellen--
Sometimes a face
is an illusion.
You are the supervisor...
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.
...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.
Oh, my.
Get me into some scrubs.
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.
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.
It's okay.
It's okay, it's okay.
It's okay, it's okay.
Chili Peppers,
best medicine.
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?
Yes.
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?
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...
...until the weather itself
became invisible.
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
Get out of the car!
NGO! We're NGO!
NGO!
Okay, move! Go! Go!
He's dead.
They took his satphone.
- We are on our own.
- Are you okay?
- It's getting dark soon.
- Yeah, yeah.
A piece of the seat bit me.
Okay, grab everything.
Take that big one.
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.
Sorry you had to visit us
in this time of trouble.
Maybe you can come back
some other time.
How many cards do you have?
Sam, switch to green.
We're near the road.
- 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.
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.
Take the whiskey.
What's wrong, Mommy?
She's pregnant.
- Superficial...
- And she's bleeding.
- Winnie!
- Yes, Ma'am?
- Come here! Come quick!
- 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.
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.
- Refugees. Okay.
- Okay, everyone. I'm cutting.
Okay, here we go.
Okay, pull.
I'm closing the neck wound.
- Wow, it's really wedged.
- Yeah.
Really wedged.
Try to manipulate
the baby's head upward, please.
Okay.
Winnie. Legs up again.
All the way up.
Yes, Ma'am.
Up!
More. Push.
Wait.
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.
Assatu's baby is doing well.
Assatu can rest.
We both could do with
that bottle of whiskey, huh?
The sacrifices we make, huh?
Are you kidding me?
Is nothing sacred to you?
Everything is sacred to me.
Everything.
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...
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?
- And nothing.
It's nice to share
different experiences.
What about your mother?
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
Mm-hmm.
Are you a playboy, Miguel?
I'm not playing
anything here, Wren.
Hmm. Hmm!
Ahh!
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...
...had I found peace?
Or was I trading on Miguel's?
I want to see you
without me in the room.
I know you are watching.
I can feel you breathing.
You there?
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.
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.
I realized a while back
what it really was, the truth.
What was the truth?
You never loved me.
I did love you, Wren.
- No.
- 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!
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!
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.
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.
First-class
boarding announcement,
Geneva to Cape Town.
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.
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.
Is the key in the same place?
Ja, welcome!
Thank you!
Did I have the wrong date?
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.
Too dark in here.
Ay yi yi!
Ah, c'est...
Three days of depressions
too many.
Eat.
I will...
Sarie... leave them... really...
I leave...
...in one minute.
You don't have to do that...
Just a second!
Don't say "thank you."
Just a second, I'll get Sarie.
Excuse me!
Sarie!
He's here...
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!
I'll just leave this here.
Come over here.
Closer.
Wren, that couldn't be
the last time
we saw each other.
Just do normal things.
Mm.
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
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.
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.
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?
- 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.
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?
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.
I know. I know.
I know.
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.
You told me,
"Everything is sacred."
"Everything."
That's what you said.
I remember now.
Beatrice!
Let me know
as soon as you can.
What are you thinking?
What?
Hmm.
Are you going
to spoil it already?
Completely.
That's my girl!
That's my girl.
Go.
Shh.
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.
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.
Let's go for a drive now!
Let's go for a drive now!
Let's go for a drive now!
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?
...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."
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!
Come on. Come on.
Come here, please. Come here.
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!
What?
Winnie. Winnie, call it in.
Cover the girls' eyeballs.
Cover your sisters'
eyeballs now! I'm coming.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
I-- I'm a doctor, okay?
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.
No! No!
- 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!
Please, Doctor!
Doctor! Please, Doctor!
Okay. Okay.
Okay. That's burnt.
Mousa, I wanna get
your kids back to the camp.
We need to bring
them to the van.
In the back.
Hurry.
Bring her in here.
Everybody in?
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.
Syringe, please. Please.
Syringe, yeah.
We have Dulcolax. Great!
How did we end up with that?
Do you know its other uses
besides constipation?
- Does it have any?
- No.
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.
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?
They should live,
that is a solution.
- Live? Live.
- 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.
You don't want
to keep me company,
just a little bit?
I need my prayer mat.
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.
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.
Wren, I--
I was scared today, too.
All right.
I wanna know what
that man's typing is right now.
A pos?
- Yes.
- All right, he's getting all 6.
Prep him,
we're transfusing him.
- What is it?
- We gotta move!
What's the matter?
- They need us!
- We have to go.
We gotta get
across the border.
It's bad. The rebels used
a lot of civilians.
For what?
- Come on! Come on!
- Let's go!
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.
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!
- 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!
Okay, I'm in the back.
Let's go, let's go.
Doctors.
- Doctors. We have to go through.
- We have to go!
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.
Let Farber take it.
- Dr. Petersen.
- Yes, I'm coming.
Why are there
so many young men,
boys with chest wounds?
They were used as human shields
by the rebels.
Really.
You know?
No.
I'll have to read that poem.
I am Malesh Roe.
Where is my daughter Fatou?
Is she living?
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.
- Jesus.
- That's what she said.
What?
You can't do that.
Wren, you can't do that!
What is your daughter's name?
Fatou.
Fatou? Fatou Roe?
We don't let
the patients decide!
Beatrice. Her daughter's name
is Fatou Roe.
Check triage
to see if she survived.
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...
I got a little one, there.
- Hey.
- What?
I was just thinking...
you're still perfect to me.
Are you coming or going?
Lady, you better make
your fucking decision!
Wren.
Wren.
MSF wants us to stay.
It is almost curfew for
the border until morning.
All right.
We're pulling out.
Why haven't you married?
Life is hard.
You need another person
to share it with.
You okay?
I'm all right. You okay?
Mwah!
Ow!
Dad, aren't we gonna leave?
Yes?
Yes, we are.
All the patients
in the triage
cleared out
a few minutes ago.
They just left.
Let's go. Inside.
Get in the car.
Get down! Samuel,
get inside, stay down.
Clear!
Yah!
See this one, no?
What's you, my brother?
He's a doctor.
You got anything for us?
Princess... They your toy.
Move on!
What are you doing?
What are you--?
Wren, Wren.
What are you doing? What?
Give me your watch, man!
Ya, Doctor?
Why you wearing my watch?
Didn't you hear the man?
What you need it for?
Your time finished.
- Stop!
- Wait, wait, wait.
Very funny, Doctor...
Give me your watch, man.
Give me your shoe!
Give me your shoe also!
Doctor, that's a very nice shoe!
No here.
- Don't hurt my pa!
- Sam.
- Sam, go back!
- You.
- You come here. Come.
- Our Commander call you.
- 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.
- Please.
- No?
- Then, what you living for?
- 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!
- Slap me.
- Leave the kid alone.
- Stop! He's just a child!
- More hard! Harder!
- More!
- Do it.
- Slap your pa!
- More hard!
- 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!
- Fire your pa.
- Fire your pa.
- 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!
No!
- Get back! Get back!
- Sam! Sam!
What is wrong with you?
- What is wrong with you?
- My son!
You. You snapped the bullet.
No.
No!
Wait, wait.
Miguel! Miguel!
Miguel, we're leaving!
What's he doing? Miguel!
Wren,
get inside the car!
Wren!
Go!
I always think...
about how white
his shirts were.
His little shirts. Sam.
How did he always
get them so white?
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.
It's not true.
Tell me...
Tell me it's not true.
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.
- Yes.
- But it scares me.
So much.
I wish I could.
- I wished...
- I wish...
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.
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
"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...
...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.
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.
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