Film Review: "For Sama" (2019).

"An intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war." This is For Sama (من أجل سما). This documentary film directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, and narrated by Al-Kateab. The film is a love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

The Battle of Aleppo was a major military confrontation in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, between the Syrian opposition against the Syrian government, supported by Hezbollah, Shia militias and Russia, and against the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG). The battle began on 19 July 2012 and was part of the ongoing Syrian Civil War. A stalemate that had been in place for four years finally ended in July 2016, when Syrian government troops closed the rebels' last supply line into Aleppo with the support of Russian airstrikes. In response, rebel forces launched unsuccessful counteroffensives in September and October that failed to break the siege; in November, government forces embarked on a decisive campaign that resulted in the recapture of all of Aleppo by December 2016. The Syrian government victory was widely seen as a potential turning point in Syria's civil war. Al-Kateab was motivated to make the film because Syrian broadcasting was making no mention of the atrocities that were going on in Aleppo. Al-Kateab started making the film at the age of 21. She carried on filming over the next five years, capturing over 500 hours of footage. Filming covered five years, between the start of protests against the government of Syria in 2012, and 2017. In 2016, Al-Kateab fled to safety in Turkey. She is now a resident in England.

It is an artful unflinching analytical doc on the devastating civil war in Syria. For Sama documents a catastrophic crisis that still requires international attention, its mishmash of methods produce an effective end result, albeit lacking considerable evocation beyond the subject's raw intensity to sway its audience. The filmmakers deserve extra praise just for embedding and endangering their own lives to produce such a display of heroism. It is a gripping docu shows real-life footage of ongoing Syrian war. However, if you've seen other documentaries about Syria and its war in the past, I don't think the film will provide you with more insight. However, it gives chilling context to the weight of how long these conflicts have raged. It also provides an unforgettable look at people forced into their best, defined by constant moments of terrible clarity. An unflinching, grippingly realistic, and heart-rending documentary about the senseless carnage of war.

Simons says For Sama (من أجل سما) receives: