The Cave (2019)

Directed by: Feras Fayyad | 107 minutes | documentary, war

Syria, in one of the many suburbs of the capital Damascus. Everything appears to be peaceful. Only a strange yellow haze lies like a blanket over the city. Maybe a light sandstorm. Or is it bomb smoke, discolored by the dawn? The answer will follow soon. The serene silence is broken by a gigantic bang. New clouds of smoke rise quickly. Shortly after, countless other explosions follow, now preceded by visible rockets fired. There seems to be no end to it.

The camera recoils slowly and carefully, the surface too dangerous. Like 400,000 residents left behind, entangled between the fires of the Syrian regime and its allies, life continues underground as good or bad as it goes. Flight is impossible. The future is pitch black. A network of underground passages and cellars leads to the only bastion of hope: an underground hospital called The Cave. A few doctors left behind, often still students, try to give a sign of light amidst all the misery. The camera is the only link with the outside world.

The lights in the hospital are dimmed. People whisper. Even the camera only seems to be able to maneuver slowly. Anything not to stand out. Those who are not seen or heard can continue in the shadows. Because of that modesty, the danger is always palpable. While operations are being carried out underground, the fighter planes above it thunder incessantly. How far does human resilience extend? If the number of bombings is increased, aggravated by the use of poisonous gases (from, perhaps worth repeating, one’s own regime), the situation becomes increasingly dire. The cash flow of injured people is slowly taking its toll.

Yet the employees who speak in the documentary ‘The Cave’ made for National Geographic are surprisingly combative. Perhaps because there is no time to reflect. But also because the human mind is inherently strong. As a result, the will to rebuild the city from scratch is indestructible. They will continue as long as they are needed. An additional commendation is that age-old role patterns are being broken. Sometimes it still produces some crooked faces, but under the line it makes little difference whether a loved one is saved from imminent death by a man or a woman. It is humanity in its purest form, in which everyone is equal to each other from the same necessity.

At the same time, from a great distance, in the Dutch easy chair, a large lump in the throat dominates. Because you inexorably witness the tragedy, there is no escaping it as a spectator. Scenes of careful laughter during a birthday are followed by fragments where you look directly into the eyes of an injured child. Although ‘The Cave’ sometimes comes across as somewhat too staged and purposefully edited, its effectiveness is inescapable.