Tales from the Organ Trade

It is one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine: The saving of a patient by organ transplantation. There is, however, a huge worldwide demand for organs – and not enough donors. Little surprise then, that an extensive black market has developed. In the investigative documentary, we meet the people involved: Doctors, organ dealers, lawyers, patients waiting for an organ, and last but not least, the poverty-stricken people who have little choice but to turn their organs into money. The film reconstructs an illegal organ transplant operation. Beginning with a patient in Toronto, the trail leads back to a middleman in Israel, a doctor hiding in Turkey and ends with a donor in Moldova. The various strands of this documentary are expertly woven by David Cronenberg, Canada’s master of under-the-skin films.