There’s more than one way to tell the story of a pioneering Irish medic, and for his chronicling of the life and times of Co Fermanagh cancer researcher Denis Burkitt, film-maker Éanna Mac Cana has opted for a beautifully surreal and almost feverish documentary. He begins with Burkitt’s childhood in rural Fermanagh and then explores his criss-crossing of Africa and his determination to discover the cause of the cancer of the jaw and mouth that he found among children he was treating in Uganda. And it poses questions about colonialism – leaving open-ended the issue of how an Irishman from a British-ruled part of the island ended up in Uganda in the twilight of the UK’s exploitation of Africa.
Author: Ed Power
Published at: 2025-05-21 21:30:00
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