REFLECTION | For Sama

2019 | 1hr 40mins | Documentary | Rated 18 | Dir. Waad al-Kateab & Edward Watts

I put off watching For Sama for far too long. A documentary that I knew contained horrors of the Syrian conflict that would no doubt shock, disturb and upset me as I watched it. Of course, I was right. Just one of the countless indicators of my privilege as a white, British, middle-class male that this film frankly illuminates; simply choosing not to engage with something that will make me sad. Continuing to live in peaceful ignorance. For this, I am ashamed.

However, my personal feelings are abhorrently irrelevant compared to the events of For Sama. The footage is solely captured by the film’s creator Waad al-Kateab, a journalist based in Aleppo, and is structured as a message to her daughter: Sama. Beginning with her days at university, documenting the peaceful protests that would eventually escalate to the full Aleppo uprising against the militant Syrian government (led by Bashar al-Assad), Russian airstrikes and Islamic Extremists. Caught in the middle of this mortifying, seemingly never-ending conflict were the rebels and inhabitants of Aleppo – refusing to flee and give up their city as it crumbled around them, as so many others understandably chose to do. Waad was at the heart of it. Relentlessly filming everything she could, knowing all too well the significance of raw, unedited footage. Led by her doctor friend Hamza, her small group constructed a makeshift hospital and devoted themselves to saving lives and protecting the injured. In the absence of a government that has even the slightest inclination to protect its people, Hamza, Waad and their friends became the last hope of salvation for the people of Aleppo.

Let me be clear, some of the imagery Waad records at the hospital is some of the most harrowing and heart-breaking imagery I’ve ever seen on film. The camera does not shy away from the numerous dead children – nor does it neglect the tears of grieving mothers nor the cries of young boys mourning their brother lying dead in their arms. And so it shouldn’t. This is not entertainment. This is life in the modern day. No number of news reports or statistics can give you even a shred of empathy compared to overwhelmingly visceral experience that For Sama provides. Yet still, for all the tears you may spill and for all the aching your heart can handle, it is still incomparable to the real thing. Watching this film, I personally believe, is the least you can do.

While the footage was as painful as I expected, it is not what makes For Sama a 5-star watching experience. For at the heart of all this death and desolation is Sama. Having proposed in their makeshift hospital, Hamza and Waad get married. Their wedding is small and improvised; at one point they jokingly suggest to keep the music loud to drown out the exploding shells coming from the streets outside. Soon, Waad falls pregnant. Despite her internal moral struggle with the notion of raising a child in a warzone, nine months later she gives birth to a baby girl: Sama. For Sama, as it titularly suggests, is a letter from Waad to her daughter – at points begging her forgiveness for keeping and raising her in such an inhospitable environment. Waad speaks directly to her daughter’s future self, explaining how the sense of duty felt by her and Hamza to help, protect and serve the people of Aleppo was too strong to ignore.

The bravery of Waad, Hamza and their friends cannot be overstated, nor can the content of their character or the strength of their spirits. In a crumbling city, covered in blood and ash, they refused to run away. Somehow, they continue to laugh and smile while the walls shake around them. As food and supplies become sparse, Waad’s best friend is overjoyed when her husband surprises her with a persimmon, before joking that the siege can continue as planned now that she has her fruit. She also runs an underground school so that the local children can still access some form of education. In an effort to create a sense of community, her husband buys some art supplies and organises an art session in which the children paint an old bus. When asked what happened to the bus, his five-year-old daughter replies that it was ‘hit by a cluster bomb’. No matter how much paint or fruit the adults can throw at their situation, even the youngest members of their community know all too well the tragic reality.

This is the balance of For Sama. Adversity in the face of despair. Sheltering and nurturing life while surrounded by death. Sama herself is not only the offspring of two ferociously devoted and wholeheartedly endearing parents, but a beacon of hope. One piece of footage shows Hamza, Waad and Sama sneaking back into Aleppo to help their friends. When they arrive, Waad remarks how, most of all, her friends were happiest to see Sama; her smiling face welcome respite to the constant terror they faced. The girl born in hellfire, living to see another day.

- Ewan Cadwallader