“The dignity of a human being is to share your last moments with your loved ones.”
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“Like a historical document…capturing the quotidian struggle for dignity against the odds….Achilli’s film works as a moral lesson from humanity’s better selves about how we should behave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… ”
“Haunting, timeless and beautiful”
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.
