This film was released on the 21st of February 2020, and is no longer screening.

In Mexico City, the government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances for a population of nine million, a situation which has spawned an underground industry of for-profit ambulances, which are often run by people with little or no training or certification. The Ochoa family operate one such vehicle, competing with other EMTs for patients in need of urgent help, while struggling to keep their own financial needs from jeopardising the people in their care.

When a crackdown by corrupt police forces the family to legitimise their business, their desperate financial situation pushes them into questionable practices even as they continue providing essential medical services. In humanising the Ochoa’s ethically compromised business, Midnight Family explores urgent questions around healthcare, the failings of government and the complexity of personal responsibility.

(Notes by David O’Mahony)

Don’t forget we now schedule weekly.