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Angels is a story about decease and hope. Franciscan Sisters administer the Center For the Dying From AIDS in South Africa. They give infected patients painkillers and accompany them to the very end of their lives. The Franciscan Sisters meet with death every day. More than 700 adults and almost 100 children have already died in the Center. Also Frantiska Olexova from Slovakia works there. “Children die the same way like adults, they are suffering terrible pain, even painkillers are not working,“ says Sister Frantiska silently. To help children over in fear of death, the Sisters tell these diseased children stories about angels who are waiting for them in heaven together with the stars.
In the train station in Bombay, an overcrowded train arrives. When looking at the flowing masses of people, it is impossible to guess which of these individuals will head in the direction of the examination room of Dr. Nagesh Shirgoppikar. Patients come from various corners of India to see Dr. Nagesh and they all have the same problem. They are HIV positive and a majority of them do not have enough money for the expensive drugs, which could at least extend their lives and relieve the most difficult pain. Dr. Nagesh provides consultations and examinations for free. Patients who do not have enough finances for the medicines, are placed in contact with local businessman and philanthropist M. Rashid, who covers the costs of the most urgently-needed medicines. "My wife and I have been HIV positive for five years, but you are the only one who knows about it. I am afraid to tell it to my wife," confides a hopeless man to Dr. Nagesh and asks him for help. Dr. Nagesh also works as a psychotherapist, as a majority of the patients have fears connected with the illness, especially about how those in their surroundings will react. The blunt style of this noteworthy documentary film, which takes place almost entirely in the examination room of Dr. Nagesh, allows the power of the testimonies from the mouths of the individual patients to come through in the story. Their deepest fears, merciful self-delusions and simple hope impel them to meet with the understanding of the man, who like few in the world, can understand their position.
The village of Nkandla lies approximately 120 kilometers from the South African city of Durban in the middle of a beautiful landscape. Its inhabitants from the Zulu tribe live in primitive clay huts where electricity and running water, as in much of Africa, are things that can only be dreamed of. And, like many other African villages, the local community is infected with the HIV virus. In a powerful documentary film produced by the BBC we become acquainted with several children whose parents are suffering from AIDS. Until they become orphans, as are three-quarters of a million South African children, they must take care of their parents. "The worst is always the morning, when I am afraid to go see if my father is still alive," says 13-year-old Mbali, who spends all her time caring for the household and her siblings. One of the few bright spots in her life is Sister Hedwig, a nun who helps them get some of their most basic needs. Unless South Africa begins to fight AIDS more effectively, by the end of the decade over two million children here will become orphans.
In the last twenty years over 22 million people have died as a result of the AIDS epidemic, and of these 5 million alone were in 2001. Currently, this insidious disease takes over five thousand victims a day. Behind these horrible numbers are stories of individual people in various corners of the world who are trying to fight the disease. A film by director Rory Kennedy from HBO productions introduces us to five such individuals. In the introduction he takes us to Uganda, where one of the local doctors uses non-traditional methods to help orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. In Brazil we are introduced to a young homosexual, who tries to return to a normal life with the help of special HAART therapy. In a Buddhist temple in Thailand the director examines the fate of former prostitutes whose final wish is to return to their home villages and die with dignity. A former truck driver in India, unlike many in his village, is able to reconcile the prejudices against those infected with AIDS and give his pregnant wife the drugs to relieve her pain. In the final story we meet with a young pair of former drug addicts in Moscow, whose fate is proof that the AIDS epidemic in recent years has expanded dangerously in Eastern Europe.
