Beyond the Beach – The Hell and the Hope

FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY

Beyond the Beach: The Hell and the Hope follows the lives of doctors, nurses and medical staff who have given up their normal lives to work for the Italian NGO ‘Emergency’. Emergency is an organisation created in 1994 by the Italian war surgeon Dr Gino Strada. Since then, Gino and the Emergency staff have saved over 10 million lives. By travelling to various Emergency hospitals and clinics, we meet all those people who carry out the work on the front line. We also filmed Emergency rescuing migrants from the Mediterranean Sea and bringing them to safety in Italy. Through the stories of various Emergency staff members, we learn the hardships and emotional stress that they must endure to carry out the work in front of them, and the contrast between this and their lives at home. How have they changed as people when they return to their usual routines back in Europe? Why do they continue to put their names forward for these challenging and risky missions?

“Compassion is an act of peace, it’s a practice of peace”, Dr Gino Strada. From the explosions in Afghanistan, through to the refugee camps in Iraq, finishing with the migrant rescues in the Mediterranean, we follow the staff of the Italian NGO Emergency who have saved over 10 million lives.