For Sama (2019)

The documentary delivers an acutely personal and soul-shaking view of atrocity through Waad al-Kateab's intimate footage of life during the Aleppo siege. It stands out for its indelible scenes of human endurance amid systematic destruction, making it unmissable.

This award-winning documentary is the antithesis of escapist entertainment, treating its subjects with remarkable tenderness and kindness amid harrowing scenes of war. It captures an unprecedented, compassionate chronicle of survival and loss in Aleppo that is both unbearable and unmissable.

The film is a powerful, first-person documentary in which Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts interweave harrowing footage of the siege of Aleppo with Waad’s personal story of marriage, motherhood, and resistance. The critic praises its emotional directness, non-chronological structure, and the way it humanizes the horrors of war through intimate family moments and unflinching hospital scenes.

The critic describes it as a bracingly horrific but resiliently beautiful and essential documentary about a young mother raising her daughter in a Syrian war zone.

The film captures the details of daily life under the Syria conflict better than any documentary yet seen through the filmmaker’s personal, diary-like footage addressed to her daughter. It heightens the sense of desensitization and humanity in the conflict via non-chronological structure and intimate moments.

The critic hails it as one of the most powerful and essential films to emerge from Syria, a stirring cry of pain and protest from a female perspective. She singles out the intimate first-person voiceover, framed as a letter to Waad's daughter, for bringing home the human cost amid the unflinching footage.

The film is a profoundly moving study of horror and hope, framed as a mother's letter to her daughter amid the siege of Aleppo. It offers an unignorable portrait of everyday life under bombardment, blending personal resilience with the broader devastation of the Syrian conflict.

The critic calls it a harrowing first-person account of love and war, praising the intimate female perspective on family life and innocent victims amid the destruction of Aleppo.

The film is one of the most profoundly intimate depictions of the Syrian conflict ever put to film. It captures with equal clarity the terror and the moments of normalcy and survival under siege.

The gripping documentary compiles the filmmaker’s footage from inside besieged Aleppo with bracing intimacy via voice-over addressed to her daughter. It provides a coherent account of the humanitarian crisis from the perspective of the wounded and displaced while prompting reflection on defying tyranny.

The extraordinary war diary is simple in concept and shattering in execution, blending hard-headed reportage with unguarded personal testimony as a singular intimate perspective on the Syrian conflict. It follows the filmmaker’s years of footage addressed to her daughter from hopeful protests to reluctant exile.

Part hardcore news reportage, part intimate memoir, it is a compelling dispatch from deep inside the Syrian conflict that mixes the personal and the political to thought-provoking, emotional ends. It is one of the best documentaries of 2019.

The film is a riveting gaze of a family enduring barrel bombs, death and the bounds of love, with the mother’s lullaby voice explaining her choices to stay and fight. It tracks intimate moments of community, bravery and humor amid collapsing buildings and constant menace through the unflinching camera.

The review finds that hardcore reporting and intimate personal testimony merge to compelling effect in this gripping account of one family's experience. It singles out sequences such as the doctors reviving a seemingly stillborn child for their harrowing yet cathartic impact.

The review describes an often harrowing yet sometimes uplifting and entirely unique chronicle of life in wartime Aleppo. It singles out the personal testimony, moments of joy and gallows humour, and the baby's presence amid the horror as particularly moving.

The critic emphasizes that the horror is real in this close-up account of suffering children and a mother's witness to the siege, calling it a powerful testament while noting a somewhat fancy ending.

It is both an achingly sweet love story and a video diary of a revolution betrayed. The film shows dark horrors alongside astonishingly nice moments that happen over and over again.

The critic describes a deeply personal first-person narrative that captures both the horror of war and the vibrancy of those trying to carry on their lives. She highlights the female perspective and intimate family angle that set it apart from other Syrian conflict documentaries.

The critic calls it a haunting, brilliant documentary that delivers a raw, first-person account of life under siege. She singles out the juxtaposition of everyday moments of love, laughter and family life against the backdrop of unrelenting horror and destruction.

The critic praises the film's personal approach to the Syrian conflict by centering on children and presenting it as a message to the director's daughter Sama. They highlight the wrenching personal footage and the mother's struggle to explain her choices.