Midnight Family

The desperate lack of state ambulances in Mexico City has opened the door for private individuals to provide their own emergency transport for patients. When saving lives they find themselves on the fringes of the law and existential distress. Mexico City's more than nine million inhabitants are served by less than 45 official ambulances. Every night, Fernando Ochoa and his sons set out on the busy streets of the city with their own ambulance to offer first aid to the hospital for all those in need. Their work is filled with tense waiting and dramatic chases through the city centre, in which they race with competitors, the police or precious time. This stunning documentary by a 27-year-old director offers a probe into a dysfunctional healthcare system. But it is primarily a portrait of a family of modern good Samaritans surviving in a grey zone of the economy, a family whose members, despite a constant lack of money, look out for each other.