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War Surgeon: Chris Giannou Premieres April 10 on TVO
April 01, 2002
April 1, 2002: Chris Giannou has been hailed by many as a hero, a modern-day Norman Bethune and labeled “the terrorist doctor” by others. Premiering Wednesday, April 10 at 10 p.m. on TVO’s The View From Here, War Surgeon: Chris Giannou, provides an in-depth look at this larger-than-life figure, a Canadian doctor committed to saving lives on the front-lines.
As a triage surgeon and the director of medical operations for the Red Cross in Africa, Dr. Giannou and his team respond to crises all over the continent, flying out from their base in Nairobi, Kenya to establish and maintain field hospitals in Sudan, Ethiopia, Sierra Leon and Somalia. In the mid-1980s Giannou was the only doctor at the Chatilla refugee camp in West Beirut where Palestinian refugees were caught in Lebanon’s bitter civil war. In the 90s he was the acting head of a Red Cross hospital in Chechnya when six of his colleagues were brutally executed, creating a grim turning point for humanitarian workers. In 1992, during clan violence in Somalia, Giannou set up a hospital in Mogadishu.
War Surgeon: Chris Giannou shows Giannou visiting this Mogadishu hospital eight years later. The city is more lawless than ever, but Giannou discovers that despite all the clan divisions in the country, in the hospital there is only one priority, the clan of the wounded. In a country that is a logistical nightmare, the hospital works. The best in the Somalia, it’s now run entirely by Somalis. In what he sees as the most important part of his job, Giannou offers key training on war surgery to the hospital staff.
A Cineflix and Judy Films production, War Surgeon: Chris Giannou is directed by Judy Jackson, produced by Glen Salzman and Judy Jackson, and co-produced by David York and Nick Hector.
War Surgeon: Chris Giannou is produced with the participation of CTF/Telefilm Canada; the Quebec and Ontario Film and Televison Tax Credit programs; the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit; Rogers Documentary Fund; and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). War Surgeon: Chris Giannou is produced in association with TVO / TFO; the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Canal Vie; Knowledge Network and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
