“For Sama” is both an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war.
As I watch this documentary from the comfort of my NYC studio where I have clean water, more than enough food and safe streets to walk down, I think about how afraid and desperate I would be if I were a young mother living in a country currently under siege and the only thing I could focus on is if my child would live to see the next day.
Waad Al-Khateab takes us on her journey in a video letter for her daughter Sama as she explains to her the life from which she was born into. With the most captivating, raw footage of a five-year uprising in Aleppo, Syria, Waad shares the most intimate details of her personal life and struggles as she fights for freedom while trying to stay alive.
In 2012, Waad decides to study at the University of Aleppo against her parents’ wishes and becomes one of many to join protests against the dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad. Since the regime denies there were any protests happening, she captures them on camera for the world to see. She meets Hanza, who just graduated as a doctor and is one of few involved in helping the injured in the revolution and they become like family. When more than 40 bodies appear in the river, mostly of people who live in areas that oppose the regime, the people take the deaths as the government’s message to back off. The graphic images of the tortured show bullets to the head and were said to be last seen at the regime checkpoint.
As Waad’s parents beg her to come home and Hanza’s wife forces him to choose their marriage or the revolution, both choose to stay and help fight. Leaving is not an option in their eyes, they want to create change no matter the cost. Because there are no medical services, the people do everything themselves from digging bodies out of ditches to burying the dead, Hanza and his friends set up a hospital. Despite so much negativity, the people are still motivated and inspired to keep going. Sadly some of Waad and Hanza’s friends are killed in the bombings.
As the climate becomes more dangerous, Hanza falls in love, proposes to Waad and they get married. After they move into their first home, she finds out she is pregnant and even in the midst of a terrible war, they are overjoyed. The bombings get so bad they move into the hospital where they try to make it as comfortable as possible, but some explosions are so strong it often forces them down to the basement for safety. While some people decide to leave Aleppo, Waad and Hanza, along with many others, refuse. They will remain and fight for their freedom against the regime. Hanza reaches out to various news outlets with footage of the terror happening in Syria, shockingly not one person does anything to help. Throughout watching so many children come into the hospital and die, bloodshed day in and day out, Waad openly confesses regretting ever coming to the university, meeting Hanza and having their child.
After other hospitals are bombed, theirs eventually gets hit, killing over 50 people. The sight of the bloody floors and dead bodies is so penetrating, I still get numb imagining how one gets used to such tragedy and where they get their strength from to move forward. Waad finds out she is pregnant again before everyone is finally forced to leave Aleppo; luckily, they make it past the checkpoint alive and begin a new chapter in their lives.
This story touches me deeply as it brought a human image to the people of Syria. I think about how this country is always negatively portrayed in American media where there is constant news of suicide bombers and Muslim cults but never families living normal lives like the rest of the world. This documentary was not only a story of struggle and courage but a beautifully narrated journal of love, hope, and humanity. I hope the courage Waad and Hanza have shown will someday make Sama proud!
Now playing in select theaters
3.4k
20k
1.5k
1.3k