REVIEW: ‘For Sama’
Photo: Waad al-Kateab films the siege of Aleppo, Syria. Photo courtesy of PBS / Provided by Pressroom with permission.
For Sama, the new documentary from directors Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts, is a powerful testimony of how senseless war can forever change the life of a community. Waad holds a camera during the siege of Aleppo, Syria, while that city and country experience a deadly civil war, and what she films is startling, saddening and ultimately humanizing.
The movie receives its title from Waad and Hamza’s daughter, Sama, who is only an infant throughout the film and somehow grows used to the constant bomb blasts and artillery fire. Waad’s voiceover is centered on Sama, as if the mother is writing her daughter letters from the battleground.
Hamza is the head doctor at a makeshift hospital in eastern Aleppo — a hospital that needs to change locations after it’s bombed out by the Russian military and the Syrian regime under the leadership of Bashar al-Assad. Hamza’s team helps the injured and dying, all while trying to survive themselves. Waad’s camera, meanwhile, is there to record the trials and tribulations.
When Russian aircraft drop bombs from overhead, Waad, Hamza and Sama retreat to the basement of whatever building they are living in. Amongst neighbors and loved ones, they form a community, whose members are dependent on one another to deal with the grief and near-constant fatalities.
Waad’s lens offers a powerful perspective on the Syrian war, one that is too often forgotten about by western news outlets. There is no talk of politics and partisanship in these 95 minutes; instead, the viewer is given a gripping document of survival and siege. The evidence shows that countless families are torn apart by the warfare, and Waad and Hamza are on the frontlines of the conflict because of their unique role with the community hospital.
The images that Waad films can be difficult to watch, which is exactly the point. She records many children brought into the hospital who have little hope of survival. She finds a grieving mother screaming at the camera to record the monstrosity of her despair. There’s a young boy fighting back tears as he sees his friend lying dead on a gurney. A pregnant woman comes in after being riddled with shrapnel. The doctors perform an immediate cesarean section, and the fate of both mother and child are held in the balance.
Waad’s cameras continue for five years, according to press notes, so these heavily edited 95 minutes offer a profound progression that includes lighter moments of funny jokes and quiet living, devastating moments of blood and tears, and uncertain moments of retreat and displacement.
Taking all of the scenes together, For Sama serves as an important testament to the spirit of survival that a small community of people can somehow muster despite near-impossible circumstances that threaten their very existence. For those viewers willing (and emotionally able) to go deeper into the headlines of Assad, Aleppo and Syria, the documentary is a necessary lesson in how reality can be frighteningly hellish, and yet somehow the innocence of youth — the laugh of a baby — can keep a person’s head focused on that ultimate prize: survive, and tell the story.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
For Sama. 2019. Directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts. Filmed and produced by al-Kateab. Running time: 95 minutes. Available now on DVD from PBS. Rating: 
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