The Physician (2013)

A historical epic set around 1000AD, The Physician tells of an English orphan named Rob who is raised by a travelling barber-surgeon after his mother dies of side-sickness (appendicitis). When Rob comes of age he adopts a Jewish identity in order to travel across the known world and study under the great Persian doctor Ibn Sina. Rob flourishes under Ibn Sina's tutelage and together they avert an epidemic of the black plague and perform the world's first successful appendectomy. However, tension escalates between the tolerant Islamic ruling faction and the puritanical extremists and this places Rob and his fellow secular scholars in peril. Sweeping and grand, each phase of Rob's life is interesting in its own right and the mystical soundtrack is used well over the 2.5 hour stretch. The medieval backdrop of science vs religion during the Islamic Golden Age also helps to keep you compelled throughout the film. Bottom line: there's a lot going on here so you're going to want to see it again.

10/10