AllMovie

This propaganda film from East Germany about a corrupt society in West Germany goes to such extremes that it may offend many viewers -- especially doctors. Essentially, the film, by director Horst Seemann who also wrote the script, focuses on the evils lurking in West German hospitals. When a (female) surgeon has a patient die during an operation, she nonchalantly dismisses the death as yet another step in advancing scientific knowledge. Drugs are bandied about for profit only, whether tainted or not, whether they kill the patients or not -- they only exist to bring money into the hands of the doctors and the manufacturers. Not only are these elite hospital staff corrupt in handling patients and drugs, they also lead dissolute lives of no moral standards whatsoever. Viewers may wonder if some West German director will soon be filming a "reply" in a kind of cinematic showdown.