Last night I decided to watch a documentary about a Mexican family. Apparently, in some parts of Mexico government-owned ambulances aren't enough to keep up with the number of emergencies so the solution is for private ambulances to fill the gap.
These private ambulances compete with each and the first one to arrive at an emergency gets the client, provide them with the necessary care, and takes them to the hospital. If you have watched the movie with Jake Gyllenhaal called Nightcrawler, you might remember the sort of races with journalists competing to the first to arrive on a scene.
Well, that's very similar to what we will see in the documentary but instead of journalists, it will be private ambulances racing through the street. We will see a glimpse of their lives, a handful of their clients, and how they handle emergencies.
One thing I didn't like is that in the documentary only one of the clients they included was able to pay them for the service. This isn't explained in the documentary but if people are taken by a private ambulance they aren't obliged to pay, so it is like a voluntary thing to do. If the ratio of clients that don't pay in the same as in the documentary, then it would be almost impossible for their business to be profitable, which is why I think this part of the documentary isn't totally honest.
The documentary has several alarming parts that can show how corruption reaches pretty much everywhere in Mexico. They got a profitable client only because a policeman tipped them off and they went straight to the scene after they received the money they gave the policeman a share of the revenue.
The other alarming and tragic part was when they had a dying patient and instead of taking her to the nearest hospital, they took her to another one where they get paid in cash for every accepted patient. The mother of the victim refused to pay them for this exact reason. And why didn't they go to the nearest hospital? I believe it was because that hospital would have paid them less. If you have a dying patient there is simply no reason not to go to the nearest hospital. I was surprised they included that client in the documentary because it made them look bad.
If you are interested in learning how people earn a living in underdeveloped countries, this can be a good choice to watch.
The best
- It was interesting to see how this family worked.
The worst
- I think they purposely decided to not include profitable clients.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6010976/ Review: AA In numbers: 6.5/10