Charité intensiv (2021)

Over the course of one winter, this four-part documentary series by director Carl Gierstorfer and co-author Mareike Müller observes an intensive care unit at Berlin's Charité hospital, at the height of the pandemic to date. The films offer an intimate insight into a world on the threshold between life and death, unknown to most. Around the clock, the staff on Ward 43 fight to save the lives of those seriously ill with the novel Coronavirus. Up close and without commentary, "Inside Charité: Covid-ICU 43" tells the story of this struggle in a microcosm that knows neither day or night, populated by glaring lights and beeping machines. Despite high-tech intensive care and immense personal dedication, the staff repeatedly come up against the limits of their human abilities. They are confronted with a completely new disease that can damage the entire body and defies tried and tested therapies. Time and again, the experienced doctors and nurses have to accept the inevitable and let their patients go. At the end of a long shift, this can often feel like a defeat - and leaves its mark on those who remain.