Watch Over Me

Impressive, deeply moving documentary about a Delhi palliative care team visiting terminally ill cancer patients at home. Counselor Maniamma, nurse Sini and doctor Reena help them make the time they have left as pain-free and dignified as possible, while preparing them and their family members for the inevitable end.

In India, only 1 per cent of the people who need palliative care have access to it. Maniamma, Sini and Reena work for CanSupport, a New Delhi NGO providing palliative care to cancer patients. They try to ease their patients’ pain and discomfort, and let them – and their family members – make peace with the fact that their life will be over soon. They comfort them with love and patience and inform them frankly about their condition. And they guide family members through difficult and often heart-breaking decisions that only they can make.

One of the people they visit is Hanif, who spends his time on the roof because he can’t breathe well inside. He wants to go back to his village to see his children, but has to wait for his medication to arrive. Another is Meherchand, surrounded by a loving wife and children. He is gradually getting worse, but his children don’t have the heart to tell him he won’t get better. A restrained, extremely moving documentary by Farida Pacha, shot in beautiful black and white.