Doc Corner: To Syria in 'The Cave' and 'For Sama'
Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 1:45PM By Glenn Dunks
The sheer audacity of making a documentary in Syria is something that astounds me. But part of what makes Syria such a fascinating subject for continued exploration is that theirs is a story we have seen unfold in real time. From its initial uprising to its deafening destruction and their continued traumas, the last decade have granted audiences a unique interior look into many facets of the Syrian Civil War from the side of rebels and side of the radicals, humanitarians and civilians.
So when I say that Feras Fayyad’s The Cave is easily among the very top of the docket, I don’t do so lightly. Fayyad is already an Oscar nominee for Last Men in Aleppo about the men known as The White Helmets. Here he has shifted gears to focus on the women doctors of what’s known as The Cave, an underground hospital network underneath the city of Ghouta. Mostly medical students who stayed behind to help those in need, the spotlight lands firmly on 30-year-old aspiring paediatrician Dr. Armani Ballour whose calming presence amid the storm of shells and fire around them is as compelling a non-fiction subject I have seen in a very long time...
