For Sama (2019)

Directed by: Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts | 100 minutes | documentary, war | With Waad Al-Kateab, Hamza Al-Khateab, Sama Al-Khateab

A real life soap about the life of a young family in besieged Aleppo, made by mother and wife Waad al-Kateab, how should that turn out? Good is not the right word, given the content. Not bad either, because in terms of structure, perspective, editing and soundtrack ‘For Sama’ is well put together. Daring and successful, you could call the documentary. So let’s do that. ‘For Sama’ is clearly dramatically edited, but basically a form of citizen journalism.

Filming keeps Waad going. She and her husband Hamza, a doctor, have decided to stay in Aleppo and not to flee after the Arab Spring, which was quickly crushed in Syria. Waad also gets pregnant while it’s already raining bombs. The early happiness is shown with home videos, while before that we have witnessed children dying after a bombing, aided by Hamza. Penetrating images, rarely seen, and then the parlando of young parents who capture happiness in their usual way, with a handheld camera. Anyone who doesn’t call that daring is heartless.

And it is also successful because human nature is essentially optimistic, even in difficult times. Sensible is something else, but that is precisely the premise of this documentary. Will Sama ever forgive her mother for not fleeing, but staying in a half-pulverized Aleppo? To ask the question is to answer it, but because Sama can’t do it yet, mother does it, leaving her daughter with a document that she couldn’t oversee the final production of while it was being made. That too is life force, because that’s how mothers are, and it’s authentic. We like to take the violin music known from war documentaries for granted. Do not look with a weak heart; not even with a weak stomach; for everyone else: do it.