Nietzsche’s doctors (Argentina-France/2023). AddressStory by: Jorge Leandro Colas. ScriptStory by: Jorge Leandro Colas. Photo: Aylen Lopez. Music: Selma Mutal. VersionStory by: Jeanne Auberson and Karina Exposito. ThrowCast: Esteban Rubinstein, Valeria Grossi, Francisco “Paco” Sico and Julio Gavagnin. Duration: 78 minutes. Our opinion: good.
Neither a historical fiction based on the medical history of a German philosopher, nor a caustic and immoral comedy. Nietzsche’s doctors This is a documentary and delicate approach to the relationship between doctor and patient, when one asks questions to the other; and at the same time to yourself.
Dr. Esteban Rubinstein talks to three patients at various stages of their treatment. An elderly man, a heavy smoker, a paraplegic boy after a car accident, and a girl in the midst of uncertainty about cancer treatment. And as the camera gives rest to the torment of each of these stories, he wanders among a circle of doctors who question their role beyond what they have learned and confront Hippocrates with the most humane and carnal doubts.
Even though Nietzsche’s texts and ideas are the film’s cover letter, whoever approaches this work of Jorge Leandro Colas with the intention of discovering the eternal connection between the author Thus spoke Zarathustra and modern medicine will not be fully satisfied. Notions such as extramorality, the arbitrariness of truth, and the imperfection of good and evil are hailed as mere obturators of Rubinstein’s dialogues both among his peers and with his patients.
Having cleared this point, it is important to dive into the best of the offer: those first-person stories, close, delicate, accurate, that reach the viewer without cuts, with a still camera that is present in every session, respecting the word, silence and pain. This is the greatest merit of the film, when it is respected, listened to and touched.