Review of For Sama (2019) by Jordanlayton — 28 Apr 2020

This documentary about a journalist, a doctor, and their daughter in Aleppo in 2016 is not for the feint of heart. Obviously.

The events that unfold around this family are undoubtedly some of the hardest to watch I have ever seen and probably will ever see. This is in part due to the focus on innocent children effected by the war shown in often gruesome, uncensored, horrible detail. I think it's important that it not be censored. These are real people begging for help and receiving none. Their stories and images need to be seen. I just think a bit more warning could have been given at the start of the film. The other aspect of this doc that made it hard to watch was my complete frustration with the documentarian for staying so long in a war zone being bombed nearly constantly with her toddler daughter when she had an opportunity to leave her daughter with her parents in a safer place. She addresses this issue and makes an argument for her choices, but she didn't come remotely close to convincing me. This doc wont tell you much about the conflict, in all of its confusing minutia, but it will tell you about the people. The horrors of war are on full display here. It's on Amazon Prime now.