A Syrian Mother’s Letter to Her Daughter, “For Sama” Shows War in an Unusually Intimate Light

For the majority of Western audiences, the region known as “the Middle East” is conceived as a vast swath of constant and inscrutable chaos. In this imagination, diverse conflicts, insurgencies, and civilian revolutions are flattened into a single horrorscape, represented by ubiquitous images of billowing smoke and colorless destruction. Violence, it would appear, is endemic to the region, as natural and inevitable as the endless, hostile desert.

This lack of historicity — and subsequent denial of responsibility — can be partly blamed on Western media that rewards sensationalist, reductionist headlines over nuance.

…. It is this framing that sets “For Sama” apart from so many war documentaries. The majority of the film centers on the confined, harrowing life of al-Kateab’s young family during the siege of East Aleppo by Syrian government forces in 2016. 

…. “I really didn’t feel we’d make it out of Aleppo alive,” she said, “so I thought, the least I can do is leave a record so one day, when Assad is brought to justice, there will be proof of all his crimes.” The resulting archive totaled over 500 hours of footage, ranging from personal, diary-like entries from al-Kateab’s makeshift bedroom and the regime’s campaign against civilians and hospitals to shots of post-shelling rescue operations undertaken beneath a still-rumbling sky.

… “We want people to understand that each refugee is an individual with a story. There are reasons these people are refugees — they are fleeing danger, and just want a better life for themselves and their families.” The al-Kateabs continue to call, openly and unequivocally, for the removal of the Assad regime, while nurturing hopes of returning one day. “It might not happen in five years, or 10 years, but we have to believe we will go back,” said Waad. Hamza agreed, “If Assad is allowed to win, if the world refuses to bring him to justice — we are living in a terrible world. We can’t let ourselves believe that’s true.”

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