Magdi Yacoub
Heart Visionary
Most surgeons count operations. Sir Professor Dr. Magdi Yacoub counts lives that got to keep going.
We were asked to tell his story in under five minutes for a global stage – not a highlight reel, but something built from the people who lived it alongside him.
The film starts in Aswan, where he built more than a career. He built a hospital – free heart care for a community that would otherwise go without it.
Then it takes an unexpected turn, to Addis Ababa, and a boy named Haile. Haile had travelled long distances from a remote village and was sleeping in a hospital reception with nowhere else to go, until a smile in a corridor caught Sir Professor’s attention.
He operated in Aswan. Haile went on to London for further care – and it was there that Lisa Magdi, Sir Professor’s daughter, decided she would raise him as her own.
Ten years on, Haile is training to be a doctor in the UK. He plans to go home to Ethiopia and do exactly what was once done for him.
Sir Professor calls himself an ordinary man. The film doesn’t argue with him. It just shows what an ordinary man can build when he refuses to stop at one heart.
Credits
Client
Zayed Award for Human Fraternity
Creative Director
Dan Jobson
Film Co-Director and DOP
Kieran Hodges
Co-Director
Nada Hashish
Producer
Yana Sherokova