The film Semmelweis is inspired by the life of Ignaz Semmelweis, a mostly forgotten 19th century obstetrician who is credited with discovering the vital importance of hand-washing by doctors and nurses. The film, directed by Lajos Koltai, is set in Vienna in 1847.
Semmelweis (played by Miklós H. Vecsei) is a young doctor working in the obstetrics department of the Vienna General Hospital that has such a bad reputation for patients dying of puerperal fever that even “fallen women” refuse to go there, preferring to give birth on the streets. However, in a separate maternity clinic at the same hospital, run not by doctors but by midwives, the death rate is almost zero.
Supported by an Austrian midwife, Emma Hoffman (Katica Nagy), Semmelweis concludes that because the doctors in the first clinic perform autopsies and assist in childbirths without washing their hands in between, they are contaminating the mothers and babies. The midwives in the other clinic do not deal with dead bodies.
The powers-that-be at the hospital are not open to Semmelweis’ ideas, viewing him as a troublesome newcomer. In addition, another younger doctor, fearing that Semmelweis will be promoted instead of him, sabotages his evidence.
As little known as Semmelweis is generally, his story is so well-known in Hungary that this is at least the ninth feature film made about his life. He was even the subject of a U.S. TV episode on The Philco Television Playhouse in 1950.
The life of the real Semmelweis came to a tragic end. He became mentally deranged and died in a mental asylum two weeks after he was involuntarily admitted in 1865. Koltai chose to concentrate his film on Semmelweis’ successful discovery and to leave out the rest of his life.
Semmelweis is “inspired by” real events rather than “based on” real events. For example, there was no midwife who helped Semmelweis, and there is no evidence that his rival sabotaged his evidence.
Lajos Koltai was nominated for the Best Cinematographer Academy Award in 2001 for Malena. He also directed Fateless, Hungary’s entry for the Academy Awards for 2006.
