He is Tom Catena, an American who since 2007 has been tending Mother of Mercy Hospital, which he also helped found. This film is more about Dr. Catena and his work than the appalling political situation that keeps Mr. Bashir in power and restricts United Nations humanitarian aid and outside nongovernmental organizations from assisting the people of the Nuba. It’s tempting to call Dr. Catena a living saint. Numerous surgeries, which he performs with kindness and patience, are depicted in detail. The doctor works impossible hours, serving a population of one million. When he’s not working as a doctor, he is, say, reroofing the facility. In lengthy interviews he speaks of how he found his calling.

Dr. Catena rarely loses his cool, but when he gets angry, it’s at the larger problem, not the patients or the staff members. In one moment of near-despair, he says, “Why do we have to listen to a criminal regime that bombs and kills its own people?”