Sofia's Last Ambulance (2012)

Rember Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mister Lazarescu? A brutal film about the erosion of society and the lack of basic forms of institutional support needed to protect and people in need. Ilian Metev covers similar territory with the documentary Sofia's Last Ambulance. It is a very strong film that keeps close to the protagonists, a team of ambulance workers. We are quickly thrown into their daily job routines and we immediately learn that their situation is an impossible one. There are very few ambulances in the city and the underpaid crews must work extremely hard to access as many people as possible. The viewer does not doubt that there are many tragedies that are merely hinted at in the movie. What makes the film so engaging, and so sad, is that the desperation and the strain implied by the working conditions are directly seen, heard and felt. The camera is planted in the ambulance and we see the weary faces of the crew members and we hear their daily banter and their survival techniques. This is shattering material, because the pressure is rendered so nakedly: a doctor smokes incessantly, there are bursts of anger and lots of frustration. Almost every image in the film is limited to the faces of the crew members. Thus, we see very little of the patients or the streets of Sofia. This is, I think, a strength of the film. It really puts trust in its way of capturing these people's jobs. This is not E.R.