Films by Carl Gierstorfer

2023, 59 min
by Carl Gierstorfer

Two premature babies, twins Diana and Sophia, lie in the intensive care unit of Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Lviv with severe pneumonia. Days and weeks in stuffy bomb shelters have eaten away at their lungs. Anesthesiologist Wira Primakova takes the X-rays from the light box and shakes her head, “My God this is terrible.”During breaks, Wira struggles to call her own children. But each phone call increases the three sons’ longing for their mother. The husband is fighting on the front lines, n

Germany 2022, 90 min
by Carl Gierstorfer

The people of the Mashco Piro fled deep into the Peruvian Amazon to escape the cruelty of colonialist rubber companies. They cut all contact with the outside world and entered an isolation they haven’t abandoned to this day. Carl Gierstorfer, the award-wininng German filmmaker and biologist, turns around in front of the river and looks back at those who want to break the contact with the isolated people.

Germany 2021, 120 min
by Carl Gierstorfer

Around the clock, the staff on Ward 43 fight to save the lives of those seriously ill with the Corona Virus. Up close and without commentary, the series tells the story of this struggle in a microcosm that knows neither day or night. Despite high-tech intensive care and immense personal dedication, the staff repeatedly come up against the limits of their human abilities. Time and again, the experienced doctors and nurses have to accept the inevitable and let their patients go. At the end of a lo

2016, 75 min
by Carl Gierstorfer

This striking documentary tells the compelling story of one Liberian community’s fight for survival against Ebola. The film is told from the perspective of those who personally faced the disease, showcasing the ravages, death and tragedy they confronted, but also their struggle to bring the outbreak to an end.With great emotional depth, four main characters from the village reveal their efforts to confront the outbreak and the difficult process of recovering from its deadly reach. Mabel Musa, an