Past screening

For Sama

Directed by: Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
Runtime: 1hr 36min Year: 2019

Details

Directed by: Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
Runtime: 1hr 36min Year: 2019
Country: Syria, United Kingdom

A letter from young mother Waad al-Kateab to her baby daughter Sama, to whom she gave birth on the front line of cataclysmic conflict in Aleppo.

Starting from filming her group of friends, some of whom are doctors who are choosing to remain and do what they can to resist and care for the community, Waad captures a shattering first-person experience of war.

There is light in the dark, as she falls in love, and experiences moments of hope in the horror of war.

For Sama is an intimate, visceral documentary that unfolds with incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice – whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.