‘American Doctor’ review: Hard-hitting doc follows three US doctors on the ground in Gaza

Dir: Poh Si Teng. US/Palestine/Malaysia/Qatar. 2026. 93mins

Poh Si Teng’s unflinching, verité-driven documentary follows the experiences of three US hospital medics trying to save lives in Gaza during the current conflict. The film follows emergency doctor Thaer Ahmad, orthopaedic surgeon Mark Perlmutter and trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa within Gaza itself, and as they try to speak out against the Israeli attacks on hospitals and advocate for a ceasefire.

An emotional gut punch of a film

An emotional gut punch of a film that, like No Other Land and The Voice Of Hind Rajab, could scarcely be more timely, Teng’s refusal to look away from the bodies of the dead, including children, coupled with the high level of injury detail might make it trickier for the film to find wide distribution following its premiere in Sundance’s US documentary competition, but it’s not the first tough warzone watch in recent years.

Teng, who has a background in producing, including the Oscar-nominated short St Louis Superman, has taken on an ambitious project for her directorial debut. Her film essentially unfolds across two arenas: at Gaza’s Nasser Medical Complex, one of several hospitals bombed by Israel and where all three men have volunteered, and in America, where they attempt to amplify the voices of the Palestinians and urge the legislature to act. The continent hopping does make for a confusing timeline of events however, not helped by inconsistent intertitles which sometimes state what month and year it is but often offer the more vague “two months later” or “earlier”.

The men are from diverse backgrounds. Perlmutter is a Jewish-American, Sidhwa is the American-born son of Pakistani Parsis who migrated to the States, while Chicagoan Ahmad has Palestinian heritage. Their approaches to the media are also radically different. Perlmutter gives news anchors both barrels about the way the media is covering the war; Ahmad has a close emotional attachment because of his relatives; and Sidhwa, whose apartment is full of books concerning the history of Palestine and Israel, has a more media-groomed and measured approach. As Perlmutter succinctly puts it to Sidhwa: “You’re fact-based and I’m like, ‘Fuck you!’. This can come with a cost, however. “I always get nervous when Mark talks,” Ahmad says, noting that his colleague’s heritage means he is targeted less for what he says.

Teng’s film also highlights the fact that the men are treated differently because of their backgrounds. Sidhwa and Perlmutter are able to return to the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza during the ceasefire in March 2025, while Ahmad is denied entry at the 11th hour. Footage from Ahmad’s previous visit in January 2024 shows the hospital overwhelmed with casualties after an attack. These chaotic scenes are a repeated sight in a documentary that has powerful emotional heft and which includes footage of the devastating IDF “double tap” strike on Nasser in August 2025, which killed 20 including healthcare workers and journalists.

American Doctor also raises concerns about the supply of vital medical supplies to Gaza, as Perlmutter packages up packets of life-saving antibiotics to “smuggle in”, while doctors lament the lack of outcry from their professional bodies and lobby politicians about the supply of arms to Israel. Teng’s fly-on-the-wall approach, however, makes it impossible for these ideas to be interrogated to any degree, which may prove frustrating for some. Yet she certainly succeeds in creating an impassioned triple profile of the men who are, if anything, increasingly determined to make a difference for the civilians and medics of Gaza, while viscerally bringing home the extent of the brutal tragedy on the ground.