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| The Cave poster. National Geographic ©2019 |
This National Geographic presentation will tear your heart out until the end with some praiseworthy moments for hope.
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| The Cave, air attack in Syria. National Geographic ©2019 |
While watching those catastrophic events on the screen, it made me think, what if the same airstrikes could happen in New York, Los Angeles, London, or Moscow? What if America will suffer the same fate as Syria? Of course, we don’t have a totalitarian regime like the Syrian government or ISIS. Still, if we place ourselves in the shoes of others, we can start feeling a little empathy for the Syrian people.
Passing the arresting opening sequence, we are welcome to the first Syrian underground children's hospital managed by a Muslim woman. The impoverished institution survives thanks to the hands of Amani Ballour, a young female pediatrician who leads a team of doctors, nurses, and volunteers to help wounded children.
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| Feras Fayyad, director of "The Cave." Photo José A, Hermosillo. Festival in LA ©2019 |
Now, Fayyad bravely takes us underground - to another more chaotic place called “The Cave.” A subterranean hospital that not only deals with limited resources to attend wounded ones but with the omnipresent sexism against women.
Before shooting his first film, Fayyad was subject to an unlawful arrest. He remained in jail for eighteen months, tortured, like many of his countrymen. in Syria, thousands disappeared in the hands of the totalitarian regime.
When he was able to leave Syria, he kept in contact with his Cinematographers Muhammed Khair Al Shami, Ammar Sulaiman, and Mohammed Eyad. The team of photographers kept documenting every injustice, wrongdoings, and foreign intervention with their cellphones and small cameras and place together all of those powerful images to make their gladiatorial films.
“The Cave” is Feras Fayyad's latest approach to the unresting situation in Syria. The subjects he chooses have meaningful and complex stories to tell. Fayyad constrains his characters in place and time. He follows them in their natural environment to bring intimate and cathartic moments beyond that bloody war.
When the award-winning director heard about a female pediatrician in charge of an underground children’s hospital, he wanted to meet Amani right away and be able to tell her story on the big screen. Her profile fulfilled other vital topics Fayyad had not touched in his previous films.
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| The Cave. Doctor Amani Ballaur. National Geographic ©2019 |
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| The Cave. Doctor Amani Ballaur. National Geographic ©2019 |
Amani left everything behind; her family, medical studies, and the city where she grew up, to do a job nobody was able to do. For conviction, she went to work in the war zone and took the position that deals with implicit harassment of the machismo of a society that does not understand that a woman can do the same job as men. When her life was at stake, she made the difference by saving thousands.
“The Cave” captures powerful and conceptual images of people suffering the calamity of war. The filmmakers have to go through more than 500 hours of footage. They choose the most critical and meaningful shots carefully, presenting, with honesty, the experiences of the people who are caught in the middle of the conflict and have the need to get assistance. The audience may consider gruesome or terrifying of the dramatic scenes, mostly about the chemical attacks done to children. The filmmakers also show some other brutal images of children with malnutrition, cancer, and physical and mental abuse because they can't hide the truth inside “The Cave.”
Under the most extreme circumstances, we can find decisive moments of hope and happiness, like a pinched birthday party celebration, or why Amani makes a“liberal” and valid questioning about why people have children in wartime.
In the operating room, a surgeon uses his cellphone to play classical music to soothe the pain of the wounded people and ease the tension among his working team. Syrian hospitals have no anesthesia and other medical supplies to mitigate the pain. They have to rely on what they have. By juxtaposing Russian classical music inside the hospital, the filmmakers enhance the cinematic experience and the symbolism considering that Russians can compose beautiful music, and they also can build warplanes that kill thousands in no time.
The conflict in Syria is part of the Arab Spring that started with small and peaceful student protests and graffiti against the government. Now, the on-going situation has more parties and interests are involved, and more innocent victims suffering.
The Bashar al-Assad regime, supported by the Russian army, is targeting thousands of children, women, and civilians. Six million people displaced, and 10,000 people are still in jail.
The problem goes global when crimes against humanity occurred in Yemen, Jordan, and other countries. Those conflicts are bound to dogmatic governments, religious beliefs, and the production of crude oil. People need to acknowledge the unsettled situation in Syria and take action to help to bring peace to this senseless war.
“The Cave” has won many recognitions, including the People's Choice Award and best documentary award at the festivals of Valladolid, Jihlava, Camden, and Toronto. That pedigree made out of “The Cave,” one of the top contenders to reach an Oscar nomination.
“The Cave” is an enormous achievement in filmmaking, a transcendental critical chronicle worth its challenging filming conditions. And a shout out to the world about Syrians resilience to remain in their country stoically.
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| Doctor Amani Ballaur feature in the documentary The Cave. |
Under the most extreme circumstances, we can find decisive moments of hope and happiness, like a pinched birthday party celebration, or why Amani makes a“liberal” and valid questioning about why people have children in wartime.
In the operating room, a surgeon uses his cellphone to play classical music to soothe the pain of the wounded people and ease the tension among his working team. Syrian hospitals have no anesthesia and other medical supplies to mitigate the pain. They have to rely on what they have. By juxtaposing Russian classical music inside the hospital, the filmmakers enhance the cinematic experience and the symbolism considering that Russians can compose beautiful music, and they also can build warplanes that kill thousands in no time.
The conflict in Syria is part of the Arab Spring that started with small and peaceful student protests and graffiti against the government. Now, the on-going situation has more parties and interests are involved, and more innocent victims suffering.
The Bashar al-Assad regime, supported by the Russian army, is targeting thousands of children, women, and civilians. Six million people displaced, and 10,000 people are still in jail.
The problem goes global when crimes against humanity occurred in Yemen, Jordan, and other countries. Those conflicts are bound to dogmatic governments, religious beliefs, and the production of crude oil. People need to acknowledge the unsettled situation in Syria and take action to help to bring peace to this senseless war.
“The Cave” has won many recognitions, including the People's Choice Award and best documentary award at the festivals of Valladolid, Jihlava, Camden, and Toronto. That pedigree made out of “The Cave,” one of the top contenders to reach an Oscar nomination.
“The Cave” is an enormous achievement in filmmaking, a transcendental critical chronicle worth its challenging filming conditions. And a shout out to the world about Syrians resilience to remain in their country stoically.
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| Feras Fayyad, director of "The Cave." Film critic José Alberto Hermosillo. Festival in LA ©2019 |
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| Film critic José Alberto Hermosillo. Festival in LA ©2019 |
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