Episode 703 - For Sama (2019)

Hi everyone!

We’re closing out the week with another entry in our ongoing series, Under the Kanopy. Kanopy is a library and university funded streaming service that grants card holders six free streams per month from a variety of classic, mainstream, independent, and international releases. They also have streaming agreements with excellent distributors, like A24 and Kino Lorber, who often produce and distribute the critically acclaimed, if not commercially successful films. Today’s film, FOR SAMA, was originally available on Kanopy, but has also recently become available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and PBS after this year’s nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. It is not an easy watch, as it deals with the siege of Aleppo in Syria, from the perspective of a journalist and doctor raising a child in a makeshift warzone hospital. We’ve previously covered Syria in our review for LAST MEN IN ALEPPO (Episode #032), which tackled the noble White Helmets, a community-organized first responder squad which rescued civilians from bomb sites and transported them to hospitals like those in FOR SAMA. Both documentaries are very powerful, but also very graphic, as one might expect.

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our good friend Rory Mitchell, from the Mitchell Report Unleashed podcast. They were gracious enough to have yours truly on as a guest recently, which you can check out in Mitchell Report Unleashed Episode #173. You can follow Rory on Twitter @officallyrory, on Facebook @mitchellreportunleashed, and on Instagram @re3684. You can also subscribe to the podcast at anchor.fm/rory-mitchell8. Don’t miss a single episode of his insightful interview-driven show.

Subscribe to stay current with the latest releases.

Contribute at Patreon for exclusive content.

Connect with us over social media to continue the conversation.

Here we go!

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<< MITCHELL REPORT UNLEASHED PROMO >>

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Today’s movie is FOR SAMA(2019), the powerful documentary directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts. Set within the city of Aleppo, FOR SAMA is a love letter from Waad Al-Kateab to her daughter Sama, born during the brutal siege after the revolution. It is comprised of video shot by Waad Al-Kateab, centered around the makeshift hospital operated by her husband, Hamza Al-Kateab.

No spoilers, but a very serious content warning for graphic violence. FOR SAMA is video taken within a war zone, showing the true horrors of modern warfare. It is an important film, but the destruction is very real, and therefore may not be suitable for all viewers.

If there’s one blind spot I had last year, it was documentaries. I used to do a regular feature here at One Movie Punch called Documentary Thursdays, and I loved using the opportunity to keep up with theatrical documentaries, or to take in something I wanted to learn more about. 2019 was a very busy year for the podcast, so before today’s film, I had only reviewed one of the current Oscar nominees, AMERICAN FACTORY (Episode #585). Jon-David will be up next week with his review of THE CAVE (Episode #706), another documentary from Syria about another makeshift hospital. We’ll pick up the other two in the coming weeks, but many suspect the award with go to one of these three documentaries. We know AMERICAN FACTORY has reached many viewers thanks to producers Michelle and Barack Obama, but why are there a surprising two documentaries about Syria?

Well, because the situation in Syria is horrific. In the early 2010s, the so-called Arab Spring spread across North Africa and the Middle East, a series of popular uprisings against existing governments and dictators, starting in Tunisia, and spreading in large measure to five countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria. Without getting into the politics of each specific situation, the governments each responded in different ways, most with extreme forms of violence. Syria’s situation, in particular, is horrific thanks in very large part to their current dictator, Bashar al-Assad, and his use of chemical weapons and other forms of collective punishment against the people. This brutal response brought condemnation from the international community, but apparently not enough to push forward with another regime change.

This internal conflict would be enough to create a terrible situation, but Syria is also involved to some degree in three external conflicts: sitting next to a volatile situation between Israel and Palestine; a larger regional power struggle with new factions formed out of the chaos of the US occupation in Iraq; and perhaps the most volatile of all, a growing perceived cold war between the United States and Russia, both of which are involved on the ground in Syria for dubious, sometimes confused reasons. The news cycle, especially in the United States, flips between scenes of extreme destruction and very privileged pundits talking about the situation like a geopolitical chess game. They rarely discuss the effect on the actual people on the ground, because they refuse, or are not allowed, to send reporters. So when video evidence is smuggled out, as with FOR SAMA, the truths they reveal become all the more important.

That’s the key strength of FOR SAMA: it’s very human focus. Nearly everything we see in FOR SAMA is being captured by Waad al-Kateab, using a decent video camera, and whatever software was available. Waad is a journalist before a documentarian, but FOR SAMA blurs that line a great deal. While news outlets tend to use aerial photos, maps, and staged interviews to discuss the situation, Waad is capturing everything from a very human perspective. Not just bringing her eye to the events around her, but literally capturing things at eye-level and in real-time, during bombings, emergency room trauma, and other regime-induced horrors. Simply put, there is no other record for the horrors taking place in Aleppo except for the footage being captured inside, which is exactly why both FOR SAMA and THE CAVE are very important documentaries, not just for last year, but for the larger historical record.

For me, this ground-level focus of FOR SAMA is as important as other works that look at or discuss the horrors of war for everyday citizens. Last year, One Movie Spawn covered IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD (Episode #562), which looked at the horror of bombing Japanese civilians during World War II, which was a different take on similar themes in 1983’s BAREFOOT GEN, set in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Or the impact of reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”, based in part on his experience being a prisoner of war in Dresden during the Allied bombings. All these works show the perversely described “collateral damage” of war, waged in our names, and for which we bear responsibility in equal measure for our support of said actions. And all of which should give us caution in pursuing war at all.

Finally, what’s especially important about FOR SAMA is that it is told from a female perspective, and further, from both a mother’s and a daughter’s perspective. I don’t mean this in the sense that crimes against women and children are categorically worse, even if they are in nearly all cases. I mean this in helping men to understand a basic question asked right now, not just in war-torn regions, but in looking towards the coming climate catastrophe: Why bring any life into this world at all? It’s a decision every potential mother will have to make going forward. And yet, when Waad looks at Sama through the camera, and when Sama looks back at her, and through that same camera at us, we know instinctively why. Women have the incredible capability to bear children, and as such, bear the truly awesome responsibility of answering that specific question about bringing life into this world. There is no universal answer to that question, but by the end of FOR SAMA, we all can understand a little more about Waad’s answer. And I suspect mothers will understand her decisions a lot more, in ways I can understand as a father, but also in ways I cannot as a man.

FOR SAMA is a poignant, effective, and necessary addition to the historical record, capturing a ground-level look at the siege of Aleppo, from the point of view of director Waad al-Kateab. While capturing the real-life horrors of modern war, it also meditates very well on the larger question of bringing life into a destructive world, provides at least one answer to that question, and importantly all from a mother’s perspective. Documentary fans, or folks who want to learn more about the effect of war on civilians, should definitely check out this film. But please heed all the graphic content warnings!

Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (CERTIFIED FRESH)

Metacritic: 89 (MUST SEE)

One Movie Punch: 10/10

FOR SAMA (2019) is rated TV-PG and is currently playing on Amazon Prime, Kanopy, PBS, and YouTube. Check the show notes for a link to the full film on YouTube.

FULL FILM: youtu.be/8jFHbo0Cgu8

Hi everyone!

We’re closing out the week with another entry in our ongoing series, Under the Kanopy. Kanopy is a library and university funded streaming service that grants card holders six free streams per month from a variety of classic, mainstream, independent, and international releases. They also have streaming agreements with excellent distributors, like A24 and Kino Lorber, who often produce and distribute the critically acclaimed, if not commercially successful films. Today’s film, FOR SAMA, was originally available on Kanopy, but has also recently become available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and PBS after this year’s nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. It is not an easy watch, as it deals with the siege of Aleppo in Syria, from the perspective of a journalist and doctor raising a child in a makeshift warzone hospital. We’ve previously covered Syria in our review for LAST MEN IN ALEPPO (Episode #032), which tackled the noble White Helmets, a community-organized first responder squad which rescued civilians from bomb sites and transported them to hospitals like those in FOR SAMA. Both documentaries are very powerful, but also very graphic, as one might expect.

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our good friend Rory Mitchell, from the Mitchell Report Unleashed podcast. They were gracious enough to have yours truly on as a guest recently, which you can check out in Mitchell Report Unleashed Episode #173. You can follow Rory on Twitter @officallyrory, on Facebook @mitchellreportunleashed, and on Instagram @re3684. You can also subscribe to the podcast at anchor.fm/rory-mitchell8. Don’t miss a single episode of his insightful interview-driven show.

Subscribe to stay current with the latest releases.

Contribute at Patreon for exclusive content.

Connect with us over social media to continue the conversation.

Here we go!

/////

>

/////

Today’s movie is FOR SAMA(2019), the powerful documentary directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts. Set within the city of Aleppo, FOR SAMA is a love letter from Waad Al-Kateab to her daughter Sama, born during the brutal siege after the revolution. It is comprised of video shot by Waad Al-Kateab, centered around the makeshift hospital operated by her husband, Hamza Al-Kateab.

No spoilers, but a very serious content warning for graphic violence. FOR SAMA is video taken within a war zone, showing the true horrors of modern warfare. It is an important film, but the destruction is very real, and therefore may not be suitable for all viewers.

If there’s one blind spot I had last year, it was documentaries. I used to do a regular feature here at One Movie Punch called Documentary Thursdays, and I loved using the opportunity to keep up with theatrical documentaries, or to take in something I wanted to learn more about. 2019 was a very busy year for the podcast, so before today’s film, I had only reviewed one of the current Oscar nominees, AMERICAN FACTORY (Episode #585). Jon-David will be up next week with his review of THE CAVE (Episode #706), another documentary from Syria about another makeshift hospital. We’ll pick up the other two in the coming weeks, but many suspect the award with go to one of these three documentaries. We know AMERICAN FACTORY has reached many viewers thanks to producers Michelle and Barack Obama, but why are there a surprising two documentaries about Syria?

Well, because the situation in Syria is horrific. In the early 2010s, the so-called Arab Spring spread across North Africa and the Middle East, a series of popular uprisings against existing governments and dictators, starting in Tunisia, and spreading in large measure to five countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria. Without getting into the politics of each specific situation, the governments each responded in different ways, most with extreme forms of violence. Syria’s situation, in particular, is horrific thanks in very large part to their current dictator, Bashar al-Assad, and his use of chemical weapons and other forms of collective punishment against the people. This brutal response brought condemnation from the international community, but apparently not enough to push forward with another regime change.

This internal conflict would be enough to create a terrible situation, but Syria is also involved to some degree in three external conflicts: sitting next to a volatile situation between Israel and Palestine; a larger regional power struggle with new factions formed out of the chaos of the US occupation in Iraq; and perhaps the most volatile of all, a growing perceived cold war between the United States and Russia, both of which are involved on the ground in Syria for dubious, sometimes confused reasons. The news cycle, especially in the United States, flips between scenes of extreme destruction and very privileged pundits talking about the situation like a geopolitical chess game. They rarely discuss the effect on the actual people on the ground, because they refuse, or are not allowed, to send reporters. So when video evidence is smuggled out, as with FOR SAMA, the truths they reveal become all the more important.

That’s the key strength of FOR SAMA: it’s very human focus. Nearly everything we see in FOR SAMA is being captured by Waad al-Kateab, using a decent video camera, and whatever software was available. Waad is a journalist before a documentarian, but FOR SAMA blurs that line a great deal. While news outlets tend to use aerial photos, maps, and staged interviews to discuss the situation, Waad is capturing everything from a very human perspective. Not just bringing her eye to the events around her, but literally capturing things at eye-level and in real-time, during bombings, emergency room trauma, and other regime-induced horrors. Simply put, there is no other record for the horrors taking place in Aleppo except for the footage being captured inside, which is exactly why both FOR SAMA and THE CAVE are very important documentaries, not just for last year, but for the larger historical record.

For me, this ground-level focus of FOR SAMA is as important as other works that look at or discuss the horrors of war for everyday citizens. Last year, One Movie Spawn covered IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD (Episode #562), which looked at the horror of bombing Japanese civilians during World War II, which was a different take on similar themes in 1983’s BAREFOOT GEN, set in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Or the impact of reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five”, based in part on his experience being a prisoner of war in Dresden during the Allied bombings. All these works show the perversely described “collateral damage” of war, waged in our names, and for which we bear responsibility in equal measure for our support of said actions. And all of which should give us caution in pursuing war at all.

Finally, what’s especially important about FOR SAMA is that it is told from a female perspective, and further, from both a mother’s and a daughter’s perspective. I don’t mean this in the sense that crimes against women and children are categorically worse, even if they are in nearly all cases. I mean this in helping men to understand a basic question asked right now, not just in war-torn regions, but in looking towards the coming climate catastrophe: Why bring any life into this world at all? It’s a decision every potential mother will have to make going forward. And yet, when Waad looks at Sama through the camera, and when Sama looks back at her, and through that same camera at us, we know instinctively why. Women have the incredible capability to bear children, and as such, bear the truly awesome responsibility of answering that specific question about bringing life into this world. There is no universal answer to that question, but by the end of FOR SAMA, we all can understand a little more about Waad’s answer. And I suspect mothers will understand her decisions a lot more, in ways I can understand as a father, but also in ways I cannot as a man.

FOR SAMA is a poignant, effective, and necessary addition to the historical record, capturing a ground-level look at the siege of Aleppo, from the point of view of director Waad al-Kateab. While capturing the real-life horrors of modern war, it also meditates very well on the larger question of bringing life into a destructive world, provides at least one answer to that question, and importantly all from a mother’s perspective. Documentary fans, or folks who want to learn more about the effect of war on civilians, should definitely check out this film. But please heed all the graphic content warnings!

Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (CERTIFIED FRESH)

Metacritic: 89 (MUST SEE)

One Movie Punch: 10/10

FOR SAMA (2019) is rated TV-PG and is currently playing on Amazon Prime, Kanopy, PBS, and YouTube. Check the show notes for a link to the full film on YouTube.

FULL FILM: youtu.be/8jFHbo0Cgu8