"For Sama" and "Hospital in the Cave": Oscar-nominated documentary composing an anthem of peace

2020-02-18 09:57:12 news 1596℃

In the competition for the 92nd Academy Awards for documentary, two documentaries with the same theme were nominated for "Best Feature Documentary". They all went deep into the Syrian war zone, using different recording techniques to show reality and implant ideals.

Synopsis

The Syrian Civil War from the perspective of women

"For Sama" The director and cameraman are all Waai Akatib. At the same time, she is also Sama's mother. Beginning in 2011, Waai, a journalist, picked up a video camera and recorded her life in the past five years from getting married and giving birth to Sama until she was forced to leave Aleppo and give birth to her second child. Wa'ai and her husband established a hospital in Aleppo, where they have treated more than 6,000 injuries. She did not flinch and escape at the most dangerous moment, but resolutely returned to her homeland. She used the lens to unreservedly show the people of Aleppo's purgatory life and the true physical and mental pain. Wa Ai said to her daughter Sama at the end of the film: "I want you to know that we have fought for the most important cause, so that you and all your children will not have to live the life we have experienced." In other words, the title of the film becomes more and more profound-these documentary images are not only for Sama, but also for every unknown and lovely life.

"For Sama" poster

"Hospital in the Cave" focused the camera on a female doctor in the Eastern Ghouta region of Syria-Amani. In order to avoid air strikes on hospitals and chemical weapons attacks that killed many victims, some medical personnel in Syria were forced to build hidden underground hospitals to save the lives of patients and avoid the loss of medical personnel and equipment. In the East Ghouta of Damascus, the staff set up such an underground refuge called "cave". Dr. Amani, her colleagues and 18 other women were elected as the managing directors of the hospital. They face death every day, and every day they do their best to treat the injured people in the town. Both films of

record the struggle of independent young women and their dissatisfaction with the restrictions imposed by the patriarchal society. The personal history of blood and tears also reflects the shocking history of the Syrian civil war under the special time, place and political environment.

"The Hospital in the Cave" poster

expresses the first-person perspective of

and "Flies on the Wall"

. Although the two documentaries have similarities in many aspects, the presentation methods are different. "For Sama" is full of strong personal style, and its form is quite similar to the popular Vlog. Wa Ai records from a first-person perspective. Whether it is the turbulence in front of the camera or the calm inquiries behind the camera, the distance between the audience and the audience is narrowed invisibly, making people feel that Wa Ai is a reporter. His firm conviction, the dilemma of being a mother, the frustration and melancholy of leaving his homeland, and the real fear of facing an attack.

"For Sama" fragment

In comparison, "Doctor in the Cave" is more cinematic, and the narrative style is a little more calm and objective. Albert Mezos, a representative of the American "direct film" school, has always admired the documentary shooting style of "fly on the wall", aiming to make documentary directors a quiet observer, just like on the wall. Flies, do not interfere with the life and development of events. And the director of the film did this in a large number of narratives in the middle. The audience can hardly feel the existence of the creator under the stable and objective record, leaving behind the immersive feelings on the front line of the war and thinking about the ethics behind it.

Screenshot of the "Hospital in the Cave"

reveals the significance of the "discovery" of the

documentary

is also the subject of the Syrian war, and also won the Oscar "Best Documentary Feature" nomination, "For Sama" from the perspective of self, "In the Cave" "The Hospital" casts its gaze on others, showing the bloody war without evasiveness through a calm lens. I believe that many viewers who watched the film have different skin colors from Waai and Amani and rely on different cultures, so most people cannot empathize with them just through these two documentaries. However, we have seen the preciousness of peace and the outpouring of truth, goodness and beauty from endless wars, so we would like to regard it as a peace hymn. Regardless of whether you point the camera at yourself or others, it shows the awakening of the record consciousness. This isPraise for the past and hope for the future.

Nominations for the 92nd Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film

If film is a "dream", it creates a unique universe that originates from life but is higher than life through fictional characters and stories, and evokes empathy for similar experiences in people’s memories ; Then the documentary is more like a "window", it discovers people and things with humanity in every corner of the world, throws natural sunlight or faint candles on them, enlarges and spreads them, so that more people can see.