An unexpected documentary highlights the still-extreme relevance of polio in Pakistan

There is a lot going on in the world that is worth documenting on film. For filmmaker Tom Roberts, he was stumped at the relevance of a documentary about Polio when asked to produce one by Image Nation, an Abu Dhabi film company.

After his initial reaction, first being perplexed that polio was still an issue at all, then thinking there were way more immediate and important things to document, like war or infectious disease that kill outright, his perspective changed as a result of some research, according to NPR.

“There’s a damn good reason” to bother with polio, he said. “Five hundred thousand Pakistanis crawl on the streets of that country because of damaged limbs.” Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani children will be crippled by polio in the next 10 years if something doesn’t change. Roberts’ film Every Last Child tells the story of the effort to achieve universal vaccination in Pakistan and shows how polio effects people personally.

Pakistan is one of three countries where polio is embedded in the population. To date in 2014, there have been 342 polio cases around the world – 291 of them in Pakistan. That’s compared to 362 cases recorded globally by this time last year, only 75 of which were in Pakistan.

Nigeria, which had seen a similar resurgence around 10 years ago, got the problem under control with vaccination. But in Pakistan, as Roberts learned, some religious leaders began railing against polio vaccination in 2012, presenting it as a Western plot. Members of the Taliban and splinter groups began shooting vaccinators. To date, 65 vaccinators, mostly women, have been gunned down.

There are many incentives in place through various organizations to tackle this tragic situation, but it’s clear that major changes are needed in order for major results. Every Last Child will head to film festivals, and its producers are hoping for public television exposure.