INSIDE CHARITÉ: Covid-ICU 43
Grimme-Award 2022 – Deutscher TV-Prize 2021 – Award of the German Academy for 2021 – Catholic Media-Prize 2021 – Hartmannbund Film-Prize 2021 – Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Prize 2021 for Carl Gierstorfer
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.
His images are unvarnished, at times unsparing, both compassionate and stark, but never indiscreet. Gierstorfer is at the heart of the action, up close to these people – doctors and patients. This costs him strength, sleep, and nerves, just as it does for the “heroes and heroines of the pandemic”.
FAZ
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.
Radio One
A long, heavy, poignant shot that must be endured. A force of despair. Were this scene not in the documentary, it would be hard to imagine that Carl Gierstorfer and his camera really witnessed it.
TIP Berlin
A film by Carl Gierstorfer
Co-Writer Mareike Müller
Editor Ronald Rist
DoP & Sound Carl Gierstorfer
Associate Producer Nele Huff
Executive Producer Antje Boehmert
Additional Camera Knut Schmitz
Drone Sven Klöpper
Music Tim Stanzel
Grading Knut Schmitz
Mix & Layback Stani Milkowski
Social Media Marcel Ozan Riedel
Social Media rbb Fanny Steyer
Line Producer Ko Miklik
Commissioning Editor Ute Beutler, Barbara Lohoff
A Production by DOCDAYS Productions for rbb
Length: 4 x 30 Min
Release Date: 2021
German TV-Prize 2021 – Award of the German Academy of Television 2021 – Catholic Media-Award 2021 – Hartmannbund Film Prize 2021 – Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Prize 2021 for Carl Gierstorfer
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.
A film by Carl Gierstorfer
Co-Writer Mareike Müller
Editor Ronald Rist
DoP & Sound Carl Gierstorfer
Associate Producer Nele Huff
Executive Producer Antje Boehmert
Additional Camera Knut Schmitz
Drone Sven Klöpper
Music Tim Stanzel
Grading Knut Schmitz
Mix & Layback Stani Milkowski
Social Media Marcel Ozan Riedel
Social Media rbb Fanny Steyer
Line Producer Ko Miklik
Commissioning Editor Ute Beutler, Barbara Lohoff
A Production by DOCDAYS Productions for rbb
Length: 4 x 30 Min
Release Date: 2021