The dignity of a human being is to share your last moments with your loved ones.
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Italy’s Frontline: A Doctor’s Diary


Like a historical document…capturing the quotidian struggle for dignity against the odds….Achilli’s film works as a moral lesson from humanity’s better selves about how we should behave with restraint and care for others in extremis…
— The Guardian
Haunting, timeless and beautiful
— iNews.co.uk

An intimate and personal insight into three months on the Covid frontline in northern Italy with A&E doctor, Francesca Mangiatordi.

Stretchers fill the corridors, oxygen tanks are in short supply and patients die alone without a last word from their loved ones. This is the scene inside a hard-hit hospital in Cremona, northern Italy, at the height of the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year.

In the early days of the outbreak, the hospital is overflowing, Francesca works gruelling 12-hour shifts caring for the vulnerable who have been most affected by Covid-19.  Due to a lack of life-saving equipment she faces the traumatising task of prioritising which lives to try to save. There are not enough beds for everyone. 

At home, Francesca is fearful of infecting her husband who suffers from a respiratory condition. She hasn’t touched him, or her children, for more than a month. Her children struggle with life in lockdown - at the same time proud of their mother for her work, but fearful that she might bring the virus home. 


PRODUCED, DIRECTED AND FILMED BY SASHA ACHILLI

SENIOR PRODUCED BY DAN EDGE

NARRATED BY FLORENCE PUGH

HEAD OF PRODUCTION: BELINDA MORRISON

PRODUCTION MANAGER: LAURA JONES

EDITED BY ELLA NEWTON, PAUL VAN DYCK, DAN EDGE, BRADLEY MANNING, TODD DOWNING

MUSIC BY JONNY PILCHER, RICHARD SPILLER

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER FOR THE BBC: SARAH WALDRON

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER FOR PBS FRONTLINE: RANEY ARONSON-RATH

MANAGING EDITOR FOR PBS FRONTLINE: ANDREW METZ 


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A FRONTLINE PBS PRODUCTION WITH MONGOOSE PICTURES AND BBC CURRENT AFFAIRS

BROADCAST ON FRONTLINE PBS (AS INSIDE ITALY’S COVID WAR) MAY 2020

BROADCAST ON BBC JUNE 2020

Winner, Foreign Press Association for TV Documentary Story of the Year 2020

Winner, Rory Peck Sony Impact Award for Current Affairs 2020

Nominated, BAFTA Award for Best Current Affairs, 2020

Nominated, Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary

Nominated, Emmy for Outstanding Direction: Documentary