When will this end? When will this bloodshed stop? And when will the United States of America stop supporting it? Filmmaker Poh Si Teng offers a clear-eyed, unrelenting look at the genocide in Gaza with her documentary American Doctor. It follows three doctors––Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, and Dr. Mark Perlmutter––that are consistently trying to save lives in the Gaza Strip. On some trips they are approved to enter. On others they are denied for specious reasons. Dr. Perlmutter is Jewish, Dr. Sidhwa is Zoroastrian, and Dr. Ahmad is Palestinian. Their mission is the mission of all medical professionals: to heal everyone they can.
The film opens with a harrowing image. Dr. Perlmutter shows Poh Si Teng a photo on his phone that she mentions she will blur for the final cut of the film. He incredulously insists that she show the photo unblurred, saying, “That’s what my tax dollars did… that’s what your tax dollars did.” It’s a photo of six murdered Palestinian children, laid out in a line. Throughout the 90-minute film, we’re witness to numerous children in various states of physical and psychological pain and trauma. It’s endless and brutal and real. Dr. Perlmutter is often angry about these circumstances, while Dr. Sidhwa and Dr. Ahmad do their best to remain calm, even when speaking to the detached, Western press.
American Doctor is, in certain moments, inspiring. That these doctors continue risking their lives to serve those in need is awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, the hospitals they work in keep getting bombed by the Israel Defense Forces, and bodies continue to pile up. Ultimately, it’s all quite dispiriting. It can make one feel crazy to watch American Doctor and be reminded that there are many, many people who could watch this same footage and convince themselves that these deaths are casualties of war. End-credit text tells us that over 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
There’s a monumentally useless trip to Washington that the doctors make, speaking with senators and their aides, who offer rehearsed platitudes and general disinterest. There are clips of President Trump alongside Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu that are predictably gross and heartless. At one point, Dr. Sidhwa acknowledges that he cannot control what Israel chooses to do, but that “as an American, I just don’t want my government involved in crimes.” This is exactly the point, and a point to be repeated over and over again. We are funding this. These doctors are fighting to get into Gaza to save the children we are paying to slaughter.
The unblinking aesthetic here is deeply effective. Vérité action brings with it untapped scenes of honesty. A healthcare worker yelling at our cameraman for filming an operation. A fellow physician’s story to Dr. Perlmutter of how his own infant child died not too long. (He has trouble speaking at a point.) We watch the Nasser Medical Complex not once, but twice—the first time, Dr. Sidhwa is in the building. American Doctor is hard to watch and it should be. It’s hard to live in a world like this, where things like this happen. Where we let things like this continue to happen.
American Doctor premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.