The document summarizes several films that will be shown at the Kos International Health Film Festival, including: - "Young@heart" which follows a choir of senior citizens who sing rock songs instead of hymns. - "The Horseboy" which is about a family who travels to Mongolia seeking help from shamans for their autistic son. - "Google Baby" which explores a business that allows customers to purchase sperm and eggs online and arrange surrogacy in India to have a baby.

1. Film
The closing film
STEPHEN Walker’s
film Young@heart first
came out in 2008. He’s
Health films on Kos
now entered it into the A recently founded festival on the island of Young@heart
health film festival and
it’s been picked as the Hippocrates brings together medical stories
closing film. from around the world, courtesy of
In the film, a chorus
of senior citizens from a Greek film director
Massachusetts takes to By Theopi Skarlatos
the stage, but they don’t
I
sing church hymns - T MAY not lure Hollywood starlets or grace
they’re more rock’n’roll its guests with a red-carpet welcome, but
than that. Think along that’s not why people come to the health film
the lines of Jimi festival on the island of Kos. Creativity here
Hendrix, Coldplay, Sonic Youth and other unexpected is inspired by meaningful stories of the soul,
musicians. These are the subjects of Walker’s film. of human willpower and the generosity of
The film charts the group’s journey, physically, across people. It goes beyond wealth and all things
various theatres in the US, and spiritually, as the members material. People come here to get to the core
come to terms with the deaths of two fellow choir singers. of what life is really about.
Walker (photo) hopes the strong subject-matter will be Kos International Health Film Festival is
perfect for the festival. Lucia Rikaki’s baby. The filmmaker wanted
“These are amazing personal stories about human to create the first meeting place for members
‘
beings who are right on of the health community and the film industry films emerge from the meetings here. There their autistic son and learn how it’s possible to
the precipice,” he says. on the island famous for giving birth to the are so many stories which need to be told.” purchase sperm and eggs online and then
If you see a 93-year- “There’s something father of medicine Hippocrates. She tells me we’re all skating on thin ice; impregnate a surrogate in India who will
old woman singing about them which I find “The aim is to highlight good practices in that even though the poets warned us about the eventually give birth to your built-to-spec baby.
extraordinary. I’m too medicine, not the scandals and negative stories fake chariot of consumerism, we kept on Last year’s winner of the Audience Award
‘Should I stay or should much of a coward to be we are always reading about in the news”, says seeking wealth. Wasting time on earth and was The English Surgeon, a film which
‘
I go’ by the Clash, like these people. When Rikaki. “This is a platform for dialogue, where chasing money is, she points out, documents the dilemmas of one
I see them, facing their Horseboy we can bring about changes to our lifestyle. New absolutely pointless. The aim is of London’s foremost brain
she’s not singing about mortality and death - “We created this festival at surgeons, as he takes on his latest
relationships, she’s but continuing to do a time of crisis,” she adds, “to to highlight good mission in Ukraine.
what they do so well - suggest a way of life that could practices in medicine, What is it like to have life-
‘
literally singing about
whether she should
it’s incredible.”
Walker stumbled
across the choir
save us; to draw attention to
those values with which a person
can obtain equilibrium of body
‘ or-death surgical powers, yet to
not the scandals struggle against your own
humanity, the film asks. What is
live or die completely by chance. and soul and, therefore, good we’re always it like to try and save a life, and
“Just seeing people of health.” reading about fail?
that age group, who were able to take on board music not The festival was founded a Attending the screenings is
of their generation and sing it whilst changing the meanings, year ago and will be an annual event on the brain surgeon Henry Marsh, who is also the
was amazing,” he reminisces. island. subject of a film shown on Kos. Summarising
“If you see a 93-year-old woman singing, ‘Should I The entries are not scientific films; it’s not his experience, he says: “When push comes to
stay or should I go’ by the Clash, she’s not singing about as straightforward as that. The work being shove, we can afford to lose an arm or a leg, but
relationships, she’s literally singing about whether she shown in Kos falls under a big umbrella, which I am operating on people’s thoughts and
should live or die. At first you think, should I laugh? Is covers themes such as human pain, illness and feelings, and if something goes wrong I can
this a gimmick? But then you realise you’re listening to ethics. This year you can be introduced to an destroy that person’s character … forever.”
music you thought you knew well, but now in a different 11-year-old who’s been fighting anorexia since The festival will run on September 1-6 at
way, because elderly people are singing it and that’s she was 7; hear the story of a family who the Orfeas open-air cinema on Kos. Admission
amazing to witness.” travelled on horseback to Mongolia to help to all screenings is free.
A Deadly Dilemma Evridiki’s Case old autistic son Rowan travel on horseback to seek help
from legendary shamans in northern Mongolia.
(Netherlands) by Juul Bovenberg (Greece) by Freddy Vianellis
THREE GPs are followed during the preparations for,
and the sequel to, performing euthanasia on one of
A Good Man
their patients. The film examines the paradox often (Australia) by Safina Uberoi
experienced by doctors over euthanasia, involving their CHRIS Rohrlach
emotions, beliefs and views on life and death. is an ordinary
Australian
The Erectionman “bloke” with an
extraordinary
(Netherlands) by Michael Schaap story. Fourteen
service - baby production. He provides customers with years ago, his
a cost-effective solution, outsourcing the surrogate pregnant
parent element to India as a way to lower the price. girlfriend Rachel
Sperm and eggs are purchased by the client online and had a massive
are implanted into the wombs of local surrogates. stroke which left
Customers then pick up their babies at the end of the her incurably
A FILM about the triumph of willpower. After seven
nine-month pregnancy. quadriplegic, with
years of heroin addiction, Evridiki decides not to waste
significant
her life any more and manages to finally understand
neurological
THIS MOVIE tracks the history of a little pill that
her family’s dysfunction. The film is based on the
theatrical play The Case of Evridiki. The Horseboy impairment. But
popped onto the market ten years ago and turned the for Chris, Rachel
world of sexual intercourse upside down. These tiny (USA) by Michel Orion Scott was still Rachel,
blue diamonds are also known as Viagra. Nosy and Google Baby ONE family’s unforgettable journey as it travels halfway and he married her shortly after their baby was born.
armed with a healthy dose of humour, the director across the world in search of a miracle to heal a son. She’s now pregnant again but, to the horror of many
discovers a tale about virility, anxiety and the state of (Israel) by Zippi Brand Frank After feeling that traditional medicine failed them, local townspeople, Chris decides to open a small legal
mind of modernday men. DORON, an Israeli entrepreneur, proposes a new journalist Rupert Isaacson, his wife Kristin and 5-year- brothel.