--- title: "For Sama: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/for-sama/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/for-sama" critics_score: 84 critics_reviews: 20 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # For Sama (2019): what the critics said Critics' score 84 from 20 reviews: 19 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative. The reviews are close to unanimous: nineteen of twenty are positive, and most critics call For Sama one of the most intimate accounts of the Syrian conflict yet filmed. The praise clusters on Waad al-Kateab’s own footage and on the voiceover addressed to her daughter, which critics say turns years of siege reportage into a family story without softening it. Several single out the hospital scenes, one involving a newborn, as the film’s hardest and most cathartic moments, and a few admire the non-chronological cutting for showing how ordinary the bombardment becomes. Reservations are scarce. Vulture finds the ending a touch too polished for material this raw. The one real dissent is the Evening Standard’s one-star rating, though its write-up describes a sweet love story and a diary of a betrayed revolution, so what it objects to is hard to tell. Otherwise the spread is narrow, with festival and release-week reviews saying much the same thing. ## The Telegraph — Tim Robey Rating 5/5. 7 January 2020. 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. [Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/sama-review-acutely-personalsoul-shaking-view-atrocity/) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 13 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/for-sama-review-unbearable-unmissable-vn639k0zb) ## Film Comment — Imogen Sara Smith Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 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. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/mothers-and-daughters-honeyland-and-for-sama/) ## IndieWire — David Ehrlich Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 26 July 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/for-sama-review-documentary-aleppo-1202161309/) ## RogerEbert.com — Ben Kenigsberg Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 16 May 2019. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/cannes-2019-for-sama-beanpole) ## Sight and Sound — Nikki Baughan Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/sama-review-mother-daughters-eye-view-devastation-aleppo) ## The Guardian — Mike McCahill Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/12/for-sama-review-waad-al-kateab-aleppo-syria-documentary) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Jordan Mintzer Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 March 2019. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/sama-review-1194044/) ## The Independent — Clarisse Loughrey Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 25 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/for-sama-review-waad-al-kateab-documentary-aleppo-syrian-civil-war-a9101386.html) ## The New York Times — Teo Bugbee Rating Critic’s Pick. 25 July 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/movies/for-sama-review.html) ## Variety — Guy Lodge Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 3 May 2019. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/for-sama-review-1203202325/) ## Empire — Ian Freer Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 9 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/for-sama/) ## Los Angeles Times — Jeffrey Fleishman Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 24 July 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. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-07-24/review-for-sama-tells-of-a-mothers-searing-choice-for-a-daughter-born-into-war) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 16 May 2019. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/for-sama-cannes-review/5138762.article) ## Time Out — Phil de Semlyen Rating 5 out of 5 stars. 10 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/for-sama) ## Vulture Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 26 July 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/movie-review-syrian-documentary-for-sama.html) ## Evening Standard — Charlotte O'Sullivan Rating 1/5. 13 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/for-sama-review-achingly-sweet-love-story-diarises-a-revolution-betrayed-a4235791.html) ## Eye for Film — Amber Wilkinson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 25 July 2019. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/for-sama-2019-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) ## Film Stories — Charlotte Harrison Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 September 2019. 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. [Read the review](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/for-sama-review/) ## The Wrap — Steve Pond Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 23 July 2019. Festival review. 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. [Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/for-sama-film-review-syrian-documentary-finds-wrenching-personal-take-on-conflict/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/for-sama.md