Until the Sky Falls Quiet is not an easy film to watch, and that is precisely why it matters.
Filmed largely in real time and through the doctors’ own cameras, directors Erica Yen-Chin Long and Jason Korr deliver a raw, urgent documentary that refuses distance or comfort. Following Western Sydney doctors Dr Siraj Sira and Dr Sanjay Adusumilli as they volunteer for a two-week medical mission at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa hospital in 2024, the film captures what Siraj describes as “hell on earth” with devastating clarity; this is frontline medicine stripped of heroics and spectacle, just exhausted hands trying to save lives in conditions that defy comprehension.
The footage is confronting, often unflinching, and at times overwhelming. Scenes of mass casualties, the deaths of children, and the relentless pressure on medical staff will test viewers’ limits, but Until the Sky Falls Quiet never indulges in shock for its own sake. Instead, it bears witness, a moral act the film argues is unavoidable if we are to speak honestly about Gaza. The warning at the film’s outset feels less like a disclaimer and more like a challenge: if you want to understand, you cannot look away.
What gives the documentary its emotional depth is its attention to humanity amid devastation. Alongside the carnage, we see extraordinary resilience, generosity, and quiet courage – from patients, families, and hospital staff who continue to care for one another in impossible circumstances. The decision of Siraj and Sanjay to leave their own families behind underscores the film’s central question: what does responsibility look like when suffering is this vast, and silence feels complicit?
Produced in conjunction with Global Medical Foundation Australia, the film is timely, topical, and undeniably controversial. It asks questions many would prefer to avoid: How can this happen? How is it allowed to continue? What would it take to stop it? Until the Sky Falls Quiet does not offer easy answers, but it insists on the conversation.
This is a tough watch, but a necessary one. It is a documentary that will spark debate, discomfort, and reflection long after the credits roll. In refusing to soften its gaze, Until the Sky Falls Quiet becomes more than a record of a medical mission – it is a vital act of witnessing in a moment when bearing witness has never been more urgent.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
For more information on how to screen Until the Sky Falls, head to the official site here.
