FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE For Sama 

Waad al-Kateab is a 26 year old student with a restless urge to comment. She comments on the individual fate of the Syrian war more intimately than anyone else ever has. In a war that is becoming increasingly complex and violent, she is armed with nothing but a smartphone. In 2012, she planned to finish her studies in Aleppo. Back then, the "Arab Spring" was still raging; there was plenty of hope. It was destroyed by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Syria sank into chaos and war. The revolution seemed like a distant fantasy. Then al-Kateab decided to stay and not to leave like so many others. She decided to fight for a better future. Then she began her documentary. Almost as if she was putting together a kind of photo album of horror. One that she dedicated to her daughter Sama. Of course, there's also her fear of being killed herself. So For Sama can also be considered a legacy. Here begins the journey of the freedom fighter al-Kateab and her husband Hamza. The pictures are overwhelming! They break through the "fourth wall" to the audience. The people affected appear right before our eyes. They address themselves to us. A mother who just lost her child. She asks why she is being filmed at such a moment of unending tragedy. We do not hear the answer. But this mother will be part of a story that must one day be told. To remember her. and all the other victims of the war. Then we see two brothers taking the dead body of their third brother to the hospital. We see bombed streets and at some point air raids seem like a normal thing. Mass funerals, the work of the many, many volunteers and a freshly born baby. For Sama is the most important humanistic film of the year! All these tragedies and small miracles of humanity are captured by the autodidact al-Kateab. And she always believes in the positive! We often experience war through a family perspective as we have never seen it before. For example, when mothers try to present war to their children as something normal. Domestic life continues to take place amidst deadly threats. One year after the shooting was finished, al-Kateab held out together with Hamza - but in the end, Syria, where even hospitals are being destroyed, is no place to raise a child. In the end, the family manages to escape. Their unrelenting footage saved them! A brave act of resistance! It will remain until the day Sama can watch it.