Bending the Arc review – a moving doc about Partners in Health in Haiti

Doctors Paul Farmer and Jim Yong Kim, two US-born Ivy Leaguers, went to Haiti in the early 1980s and built a hospital stocked with equipment and drugs they begged, borrowed and stole from facilities in the US where they were training. Out of this sincere commitment to help some of the poorest people in the world survive treatable diseases such as tuberculosis and Aids, they founded a NGO called Partners in Health. Among many other activities, the organisation, also run by Ophelia Dahl (daughter of Roald), helps train local carers so they can help those who desperately need support in the most remote communities, and to bridge cultural divides that might impede treatment. Although the treacly soundtrack overpunches on the sentiment at times, this is undeniably moving stuff – especially scenes where some of the doctors see footage of patients they helped save, still very much alive and thriving today.