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For Sama, directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, is a documentary film which vividly portrays five condensed and edited years of horrendous atrocities against humanity—the siege of Aleppo, Syria in 2016. The tagline of the movie describes it as “An intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war”, a justified statement given the power of what the filmmakers have captured. Filming this was more than an artistic expression, or an aesthetic project, it was a fierce political and humanitarian appeal with both a journalistic and ethical lens. It throws the spectators out of their comfort zone, refusing to sanitise the chaos of the conflict.
Filming this was more than an artistic expression, or an aesthetic project, it was a fierce political and humanitarian appeal with both a journalistic and ethical lens.
Waad focuses on the other side of the coin, which is mostly hidden from mass media communication; she shows what no one deserves to experience. The journalist/director demonstrates the hypocrisy of bigger nations who believe in the utopian notion of human rights—none of which exist in Aleppo. The United States Human Rights Declaration highlights that its origin was around 539 BC, when Cyrus the Great freed slaves and declared that they had the right to choose their religion—this action was the main inspiration for the first four chapters of the Declaration in an effort to establish racial equality. However, For Sama proves that the world has failed to understand the most basic message for harmonious survival, that human rights are more than just a philosophical query, and that no person should have any less right to them because of religion, culture or language.
As mentioned, the bravery of the filmmaking is extraordinary. At times, one might forget that what is being shown is actually real. The suffering, agony and fear is out of control; it is beyond one’s imagination. Moreover, the footage itself is a political statement, considering that anyone who disobeys the law and the government is imprisoned, or executed. There is an estimation that over 81,000 Syrians including children have been arrested, tortured and killed in prisons. Assumingly, as history is a subject in schools, all readers might have read about this crisis, and justifiably seen it as horrendous. Yet, the level of real cruelty is intensified through the medium of documentary—the cruelty is not only vague words on an ordinary page, it is there, in front of your eyes. People live in constant anguish and fear; many think that it is better to be dead. There are Syrian and Russian bombing attacks every single hour. They aim anywhere – at schools, hospitals—with no compassion. People are buried in masses like rubbish. From 19 April to 29 August,the Office of U.N High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented that 1,089 civilians had been killed, alongside thousands of others who have been severely injured. The Assad regime has a death list of more than 3 million names. 11 million people had to seek refuge and are terrified of returning to Syria under Assad’s control. (Waad’s family are living in Turkey now). Media is shamefully censored under Assad’s regime, constantly regurgitating slogans likes“there is no war…” The news is manipulated to serve the government’s perspective. Furthermore, those people who have to seek refuge might face walls, extended difficulties or discrimination after being forced to move country to to escape violence and death.
Assumingly, the quality of the movie is not compatible with larger production-scale films, but this is not relevant under the circumstances at all. Waad is able to highlight the good beyond all evil, the power of collectiveness, community spirit, and the purity of some existing good people amongst the demons on earth. For instance, Hamza Al-Kateab (to whom Waad ended up getting married), a young community doctor who was always smiling when helping people, gathers other doctors in the city to make their own hospital—where he helped more than 600 injured people in a single day. Some people try to make children a little bit less distressed in a scene where they paint a burnt bus in the midst of a dead city, adding some colour between the ashes. There is nothing more than a sea of red blood, corpses, suffering and destruction. It is absurd for people to be placed in hell, mothers losing their children for war, elderly people losing everything they fought to have in their lives, children growing with fear, anxiety and terror of destruction in their eyes with a sense that there will be no escape but the unavoidable tragedy: death. Children should not have this in their lives at all. The prepotence of the world and the egocentric notions of power are weapons that have, and will continue to kill, millions of innocent people.
Even though the movie can be a heavy watch, there are moments that break the tragic flow and lighten up the screen a little bit. Waad and Hamza get married, there are fragments of her pregnancy; the first year of Sama (their first daughter) on earth and little moments of life (such as watering a tree in their garden) that are undermined by our contemporary spoiled society. Even though there are people in power who bring hell on earth, there are people who will fight for peace to be restored. This movie was a shout for Human Rights to be reviewed, for global authorities to try and study the core principles that were declared in 539 BC.
The most disappointing thing about this movie, interestingly, is that it is not as publicised as popular, mainstream films.
Here are a couple of websites where readers may find more information and how to help people in Syria:
Info@irishsyriasolidaritymovement.org
https://www.unicef.ie/our-work/syria-emergency-appeal/
https://www.whitehelmets.org/en/?source=whweb
