Movie: To Be First

Top 4 Billed Cast

Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves

Ben Miles
Ben Miles

Adam Neill
Adam Neill

Bertie 'Bossie' Bosman

Patrick Lyster
Patrick Lyster

Val Schrire

  • HomePage

  • Overview

    The year is 1967 and the race is on to make medical history. Dr Christiaan Barnard, a brilliant and ambitious South African surgeon and three surgeons in America are attempting the impossible: the world's first human heart transplant. The Americans have trained and prepared together for this day for years, and Dr Barnaard is driven by a fierce determination to succeed. And succeed he does, giving Mr Washkowski an unbelievable extension of life, never before done, never before thought possible. This breakthrough in medical history, paved the way forward and made Dr Barnaard a legend.

  • Release Date

    2007-08-12

  • Average

    0

  • Rating:

    0.0 starts
  • Tagline

  • Genres

  • Languages:

  • Keywords

Recommendations Movies

Something the Lord Made
79%

Something the Lord Made(en)

2004-05-30

A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
78%

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story(en)

2009-02-07

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987.

The God Committee
66%

The God Committee(en)

2021-07-02

Medicine, money and morality clash when a hospital's Heart Transplant Selection Committee has only minutes to decide which of three patients on the transplant list will receive a heart that has suddenly become available.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer
70%

The Killing of a Sacred Deer(en)

2017-10-20

Dr. Steven Murphy is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife and two children. Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin, a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways.

District 9
75%

District 9(en)

2009-08-05

Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth. Not to conquer or give aid, but to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens' welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

Red Dust
59%

Red Dust(en)

2004-01-11

Sarah Barcant, a lawyer in New York City who grew up in South Africa, returns to her childhood dwelling place to intercede for Alex Mpondo, a Black South African politician who was tortured during apartheid.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
64%

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks(en)

2017-04-22

An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.

Hardball
65%

Hardball(en)

2001-09-14

An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.

The Doctor
65%

The Doctor(en)

1991-07-24

Jack McKee is a doctor with it all: he's successful, he's rich, and he has no problems.... until he is diagnosed with throat cancer. Now that he has seen medicine, hospitals, and doctors from a patient's perspective, he realises that there is more to being a doctor than surgery and prescriptions.

Cry Freedom
70%

Cry Freedom(en)

1987-11-06

A dramatic story, based on actual events, about the friendship between two men struggling against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. Donald Woods is a white liberal journalist in South Africa who begins to follow the activities of Stephen Biko, a courageous and outspoken black anti-apartheid activist.

The Safety of Objects
65%

The Safety of Objects(en)

2002-10-25

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

John Q
71%

John Q(en)

2002-02-15

John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.

Zulu
67%

Zulu(en)

2013-12-04

As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkhata, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain.

Awake
65%

Awake(en)

2007-11-28

While undergoing heart surgery, a man experiences a phenomenon called ‘anesthetic awareness’, which leaves him awake but paralyzed throughout the operation. As various obstacles present themselves, his wife must make life-altering decisions while wrestling with her own personal drama.

Another End
67%

Another End(en)

2024-03-21

In a future where consciousness can be transferred, Sal is urged by his sister to try a breakthrough technology that implants the memories and personality of the dead into the living. After the passing of his wife, Sal must decide how far he's willing to go to reconnect with the past.

Blood Work
62%

Blood Work(en)

2002-08-09

Still recovering from a heart transplant, a retired FBI profiler returns to service when his own blood analysis offers clues to the identity of a serial killer.

The Power of One
75%

The Power of One(en)

1992-03-27

PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.

Inseparable
61%

Inseparable(en)

2012-05-04

A troubled engineer faces pressure at work and problems at home with his moody wife. American expat Chuck, rescues him from the brink of despair and becomes an unlikely mentor.

The Man Without a Face
66%

The Man Without a Face(en)

1993-08-25

Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town after his face is disfigured from an automobile accident ten years earlier, in which a boy was incinerated--and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Also suspected of being a paedophile, he is befriended by Chuck, causing the town's suspicions and hostility to be ignited.

The Island
67%

The Island(en)

2005-07-21

In 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo is a resident of a seemingly "Utopian" but contained facility. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully-controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to The Island — reportedly the last uncontaminated location on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie.

Similar Movies

The Somme
59%

The Somme(en)

2005-11-14

Drama-documentary recounting the events of the 1st July 1916 and the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front during the First World War. Told through the letters and journals of soldiers who were there.

A Long Time Till Dawn
60%

A Long Time Till Dawn(en)

1953-11-11

Just out of prison Joe Harris looks to restart his life. His wife Barbie has moved and the one man who can tell him where refuses to do so. Enraged, Joe beats the old man senseless and runs away to his father's home, where he also finds his wife. A police detective comes around about the beating (which will soon to become a murder) and Joe insists he's innocent. Joe tells his wife and father he's a changed man and he's only a suspect because of his prior conviction. Barbie and Fred struggle with their desire to believe Joe's plea versus their fear he'll never change.

Goodbye Bafana
69%

Goodbye Bafana(en)

2007-02-11

The true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.

Heel
0%

Heel(en)

2019-06-16

A professional wrestler struggles to reconcile his onstage and offstage personas.

Yesterday
74%

Yesterday(zu)

2004-09-03

After falling ill, Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and young daughter to tend to, Yesterday's one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.

Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story
76%

Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story(en)

2000-12-10

The true life story of famed singer Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat 'King' Cole. Gripping drama of her struggle with addiction and living in her father's shadow while still maintaining her own celebrity status.

Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal
65%

Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal(en)

1982-02-17

A poorly-educated housewife fights companies polluting her hometown's water table in upstate New York during the 1970s.

Catch a Fire
63%

Catch a Fire(en)

2006-10-27

The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.

The Fountain
69%

The Fountain(en)

2006-11-22

Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

The Long Run
67%

The Long Run(en)

2001-05-04

A failed track coach finally finds someone who he believes has what it takes to win. The Comrades Marathon is a 90-k race in South Africa. An aging running coach, Barry, wants to field a winner; he's working with four men from a factory, but when he's fired to make way for a smooth, corporate type, he's at loose ends. Then he sees Christine, a Namibian immigrant who runs to forget her troubles. He offers to coach her and soon she's living at his house, following his diet and training regimen. But his single-mindedness gets to her: she wants a job and a place of her own. Plus, the man who replaced Barry likes her and wants her away from Barry. Can runner and coach (woman and man, African and European) sort out their complex relationship before the race? Written by

The Story of an African Farm
58%

The Story of an African Farm(en)

2004-10-08

The 1870's. South Africa. Life is normal at the farm on the slopes of a Karoo Kopje.Things change when the sinister, eccentric Bonaparte Blenkins with bulbous nose and chimney pot hat arrives. Their childhood is disrupted by the bombastic Irishman who claims blood ties with Wellington and Queen Victoria and so gains uncanny influence over the girls' gross stupid stepmother.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him
66%

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him(de)

2005-04-07

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
72%

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World(en)

2003-11-14

After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.

Sleeping with the Devil
73%

Sleeping with the Devil(en)

1997-04-22

Professional nurse Rebecca Dubrovich is swept off her feet by charming millionaire Dick Strang, and the two begin a passionate romance. Only when it is too late does Rebecca discover that Strang has a very dark side...

Das Wunder von Kapstadt
71%

Das Wunder von Kapstadt(de)

2022-10-04

The true story of an operation which was a revolution, not only for the world of medicine. Frankfurt 1967. A young doctor called Lisa Scheel is trying to get a foothold in the male-dominated world of transplant surgery. But after she is passed over by her main professor in favour of a male applicant, on the spur of the moment Lisa heads off to Cape Town. Here, she starts work for Dr. Barnaard, who, like his colleagues in Frankfurt, is planning a heart transplantation. Together with the surgeon Hamilton Naki, who due to apartheid can only join the team secretly, Lisa is a major contributor to the first heart transplant in history.

Turks & Caicos
63%

Turks & Caicos(en)

2014-03-20

The second movie in David Hare's Johnny Worricker trilogy. Loose-limbed spy Johnny Worricker, last seen whistleblowing at MI5 in Page Eight, has a new life. He is hiding out in Ray-Bans on the Caribbean islands of the title, eating lobster and calling himself Tom Eliot (he’s a poet at heart). We’re drawn into his world and his predicament when Christopher Walken strolls in as a shadowy American who claims to know Johnny. The encounter forces him into the company of some ambiguous American businessmen who claim to be on the islands for a conference on the global financial crisis. When one of them falls in the sea, their financial PR seems to know more than she's letting on. Worricker soon learns the extent of their shady activities and he must act quickly to survive when links to British prime minister Alec Beasley come to light.

If I Don't Come Home: Letters from D-Day
0%

If I Don't Come Home: Letters from D-Day(en)

2014-06-01

A partly dramatised account of the lives of four Allied servicemen ahead of D-Day, the programme told their story through their final letters home before the assault.

Quest for Love
43%

Quest for Love(en)

1988-11-11

Set against a political backdrop in Africa, the story spanning several years, unfolds around the powerful interaction between two women, their strong sexual allure, and their search to find meaning through it all.

Dear Prudence
65%

Dear Prudence(en)

2008-08-23

Prudence MacIntyre, the 'New York home tips' TV show presenter, is sent on holiday, by studio boss Jeffrey Symcox, to a secluded lodge in Tassajero, Wyoming. The lodge was built on the last remnant of Indian land preserved by the Andrews family. Her celebrity status and sassy charm help her quickly get acquainted with local notables, including French heir Jean Phillipe Andrews, his land trust lawyer Doug Craig and police detective Eddie Duncan. Pru is with lodge caretaker Ruth Vigil when she discovers her estranged son JR is missing from his home after leaving a message. Pru finds blood, and although it's not JR's, insists he must have been murdered. After her research assistant, a computer whiz with a minor criminal record, joins her, they soon get in danger snooping ahead of the incredulous authorities to discover several linked crimes.

Les Misérables
72%

Les Misérables(en)

1978-12-27

In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.