For Sama, 2019.
Directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts.
Starring Waad al-Kateab.
SYNOPSIS:
A filmmaker documents the siege of Aleppo by the Syrian regime, dedicating every shot to her infant daughter Sama.
For many of us, the raging conflict in Syria is something abstract, something happening thousands of miles away. But for those who live or have lived there, the last eight years has been a hellish nightmare of uncertainty and terror. New documentary For Sama, shot by co-director Waad al-Kateab fearlessly over several years, takes a sledgehammer to those boundaries and plunges every single viewer deep into the heart of darkness – as if every life or death choice is theirs to make.
Waad frames her film as a look back at the 2016 siege of Aleppo, designed as a historical document for her daughter, Sama, who was an infant during the conflict. In her narration, she claims that filming “makes the nightmare feel worthwhile” and says she hopes that Sama will understand the occasionally questionable decisions she and her husband made. The story follows Waad and a group of rebels who met at university and, when war broke out, opted to run hospitals – they have to keep moving due to bombing – for those injured by air strikes and other attacks from Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
There’s no denying that For Sama is a gruelling watch. Waad’s camera is unyielding and potent, capturing every drop of blood in frank detail. It’s gruesome, but it’s personal, and every life that doesn’t quite make it is keenly felt. Often, people are introduced as significant, only to be taken away moments later. One sequence in which two tearful boys bring in the limp body of their brother is horrifying, with the children’s tears mixing with the dirt on their faces to form a sort of sludge. Waad has an eye for the details that humanise the conflict in heart-breaking fashion. During one frantic sequence, a little boy declares he was trying to escape with “all the family”, adding “and then everybody died”. It’s a simple statement, but one that lands the most vicious of emotional blows.
As much as it spends a lot of time depicting the grim realities of war, For Sama is also adept at finding the little moments of happiness in amongst the horror. A raucous wedding feels like an oasis amid the bloodshed – “the sound of our songs was louder than the bombs falling outside” – and Sama’s birth feels like an explosion of pure hope. When the hospital’s ragtag team of doctors are able to rub life into the seemingly doomed body of a newborn baby, it’s a moment that encourages a smile through the tears. Humanity prevails, even when there seems to be little of it on show.
Because that’s ultimately what this film is about – hope. Waad’s camera certainly aims to depict the truth of one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century, but it’s not about wallowing in death and sadness. Those things are inevitably a part of the story, but the film is more interested in focusing on the bold, valiant people who place themselves in the line of fire to protect others. These people are, in Waad’s eyes, the spirit of the revolution and it is those people ensuring the future of children like Sama – an emblem of innocence.
For Sama is a frenetic and chaotic watch, reflecting the reality of life on the ground in war-torn Aleppo. Its time-hopping structure perhaps sacrifices a little coherence in telling the story, but there’s no doubting the movie’s raw, emotional power and, most crucially, its importance as a historical document. It’s a document of conflict, of course, but it’s also a story that ends on a note of very real hope in the wake of extraordinary suffering. And there’s nothing more human than that.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.
