Sinopsis
Documentary. A love letter from a young mother, to her daughter. The movie tells us the story of Waad Al-Kateab’s life throughout five years of war in Aleppo, Syria. During those five years, she falls in love, she marries and she gives birth to a daughter, Sama, while a devastating and catastrophic conflict unfolds around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival, while Waad decides whether to flee the city or not, in order to protect her daughter’s life. Going away would mean abandoning her fight for freedom, for which she already sacrificed so much.
In January 2016, Waad al-Kateab started to record the horrors of Aleppo for Channel 4 News in a series of devastating films simply entitled Inside Aleppo. The reports she did for Channel 4 News about the conflict in Syria and the most complex humanitarian crisis in the world became the pieces with the highest number of viewers in the news program of the United Kingdom, totaling almost half a billion online visits and winning 24 awards, including the International Emmy Award in 2016 for last minute news coverage. Waad was studying marketing at the University of Aleppo when protests against Assad’s régime blazed through the whole country in 2011. That was the time when she learnt how to film human suffering around her. When Assad’s forces fought against the rebels in order to regain control over Aleppo, she kept on documenting the terrible loss of lives throughout the devastating war, thus producing some of the most memorable images of the conflict. When she and her family were evacuated from Aleppo in December 2016, she managed to take all of her archive material out with her, in order to show it to the world.
November, 6th 2020. 7.30 pm. Casa Árabe de Madrid
Ticket sales
Section: Contemporary Arab Women Directors II
Year of Production: 2019
Running Time: 103’
Countries: Syria and United Kingdom
Languages: English and Arabic
Directors: Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts
Cast: Waad Al-Kateab, Hamza Al-Kateab and Sama Al-Kateab.
Production: Waad Al-Kateab
Production Companies: Channel 4, ITN productions and Frontline PBS
International Sales: Autlook Film Sales
Main Festivals and Awards: Nominated to Best Documentary in the Oscars 2019. 4 nominations at the BAFTA and winner of Best Documentary Award. Winner of Best Documentary Award at the European Film Awards. Freedom of Speech Award from the National Board of Review. 4 Awards, including Best Picture at the British Independent Film Awards. Nominated to Best Documentary at the Independent Spirit Awards, at the Satellite Awards and at the Critics Circle of San Francisco
