"Let the healing begin." Anyone who's suffered a broken heart has cherished the words - but in the so-called 'Global Era' more and more grieving divorcees, widowers and empty-nesters are joining international relief organizations and heading to Africa - hoping that lending a hand to the world's most dispossessed will renew their sense of hope and heal their broken hearts. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Healing Syndrome traces the story of one woman's mistaken hopes. Drawing on excerpts of international aid workers' personal journals, this short dramatic film traces one woman's violent marital breakdown, her employment by a humanitarian relief agency -and her unexpected collapse when she comes face to face with disease and starvation on the 'Dark Continent'. With a compelling performance by a leading Toronto actress and compelling archive footage of relief work in Africa, The Healing Syndrome is a hard-hitting look at the hidden reasons people are drawn to humanitarian work- and the heavy cost many are made to bear.
