A doctor leaves Gaza. He came to save lives, and he did. But what for? So the injured can die tomorrow in another strike, another collapsed building? What is he, a surgeon from California, doing in this mess? And what right does he have to leave it?

An end title card says it plain: “In the two years since October 2024, Israel, with the support of the United States, has killed more than 1,700 healthcare workers in Gaza.” That’s one of the things Feroze Sidhwa, the Californian surgeon, is trying to stop. Ditto for Thaer Ahmad of Chicago and Mark Perlmutter of North Carolina—respectively, a Zoroastrian, a Muslim, and a Jew; no, it’s not a joke. All three have come to Gaza to help, personally, and to bring awareness back home of what’s happening across the globe. They’d like to do more, sure, but they’ve seen too much and know it’s futile. So they aim for something that’ll hit home: Israel is targeting hospitals.

To see American Doctor, the latest from documentarian Poh Si Teng, is to bear witness. To acknowledge that these horrors have happened, are happening. And to collapse the comfortable distance between them and us, Palestine and the U.S.

In the opening scene, Perlmutter has a photo of dead children, each one shot by gunfire in a manner that can only mean intent. Teng doesn’t want to show the photo. Why? Because it’s hard to look at dead children. It’s hard to look at dead children and think about anything other than a dead child. The mere suggestion that someone might harm a child is enough to rile just about anyone in the name of justice and decency. The sight of that reality empties the same person. An arrested state of inaction. That’s why Teng doesn’t want to show the photo. “To not show it would be journalistic malpractice,” Perlmutter says. Teng shows the photo.

Perlmutter is right. To not see is to deny that the atrocity occurred, to deny the humanity of the person harmed. If Teng set out to make a heroic documentary capturing these men’s conviction and drive, Perlmutter’s charge sends American Doctor in a new direction. There’s another version of American Doctor where we watch and feel good about the work these three are doing, and here’s a website where you can donate to support the mission. Those movies make horrors palatable. And forgettable. You will not easily forget American Doctor.

Teng’s doc is no rousing piece of cinema designed to encourage others to follow. Who could watch this and think that they, one little person in this big mess, could do something? Someone will, and thank god for them. If Teng thinks so, she’s certainly not showing them in this doc.

Consider the scenes where the doctors advocate in the media and go nowhere. Where they head to D.C. to meet with senators and aides and get nothing. Where they travel to Gaza and see one horror after the other and hear stories even harder to stomach. One anesthesiologist tells a story about how his daughter died, possibly because he was at the hospital and not at home where he could assess the severity of the situation. Perlmutter listens as the man recounts trading his daughter’s life for a stranger’s with compassion, but the despair in his eyes says everything words can’t.

Most who watch American Doctor will have that very look in their eye. It’s only going to get worse. Someday it will stop, true, but it will start again. And if not Palestine, then elsewhere. The true horror of this story is that it’s so common, so routine. Watching American Doctor will empty you. It will anger you. It will make you feel despondent. Hopeless. That’s okay. War should do that to you. You may not be able to do anything about it or with it, but you can shoulder what portion of this burden you can manage. Those dead children aren’t coming back. But by looking, at least they won’t be erased.

American Doctor (2026)
Directed by Poh Si Teng
Produced by Kirstine Barfod, Reem Haddad
Starring: Thaer Ahmad, Mark Perlmutter, Feroze Sidhwa
Watermelon Pictures, Not rated, Running time 91 minutes, Premiered Jan. 23, 2026 at the Sundance Film Festival

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