At the center of American Doctor, which premiered at the Sundance 2026 film festival, is the question of how much of the story of what’s happening in Gaza can and should be shown. How much is too much? What stories should be sanitized, and which stories should be presented in all their truth and cruelty? And yet, in 2026, we don’t live in a world where truth should be given to us through any filter.
The reality of Gaza is what it is, and audiences interested in finding out about it will find the truth, can find out the truth in so many other ways. So, the best decision filmmaker Poh Si Teng makes is deciding that, even though this documentary is about the perspective of three American doctors — one Palestinian, one Jewish, and one Zoroastrian, it’s also not just about medicine or about politics. It’s about humanity.
But the documentary tries very hard to stay away from politics and focus on the medicine. Of course, as with any documentary set in a war zone, the political commentary becomes inevitable. Gaza is living through war, and these doctors have opinions about it, even as they try to focus on their job, which is saving lives.
The documentary isn’t trying to stay neutral, even though it’s also not overtly political. There are media interviews, conversations with the doctors’ families back home, and multiple calls for an end to the bombing of hospitals and the targeting of medical practitioners. But there are three very different perspectives here, in the three doctors, it follows.
Palestinian American Thaer Ahmad, born and living in the U.S., is straddling a line that his two colleagues don’t have to. He understands the landscape better, which can be both an asset and, in many ways, a handicap. Then there’s Jewish doctor Mark Perlmutter, who clearly feels more comfortable with his words and his criticism. In the middle, there’s Feroze Sidwa, who feels the same drive to help, but tends towards pragmatism.
The choice of these three doctors makes the documentary not just because of their personalities, but because of their backgrounds. The three are American, their nationality and credentials are the same, and yet it is easy to see by the treatment where the difference lies—and how it informs this conflict, in the big and small ways.
Ironically, this is the same, in reverse, when it comes to the documentary’s depiction of Perlmutter’s privilege in being able to be open about his opinion. Some things are obvious, even if the documentary doesn’t go out of its way to explain them. They just are.
American Doctor is at its best when it is just this, a look at three men trying to make a difference in the kind of situation where it feels like one person, three, a thousand could not possibly help. And yet, what can we do but keep trying? Keep screaming into the void? Keep hoping, keep praying, keep raising our voices?
American Doctor premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
