Waad Al-Kateab is a Syrian filmmaker and journalist who directed the 2019 documentary, ‘For Sama.’ The film – which won awards at Cannes and SXSW – follows her life over five years, from the 2011 Arab Spring to 2016 when she left Syria. She began filming as a university student in Aleppo to record the uprising in the face of the brutal Assad regime. During that five-year period she moved to East Aleppo with Hamza Al-Kateab. At the beginning of the documentary they were friends, but through the course of the film they fell in love, got married and had a baby, Sama. ‘For Sama’ is a love letter to their daughter, a bid to explain why they stayed in Aleppo under threat of Russian bombs, death and destruction as they bid to save lives and fight for democracy. Asked why she kept on filming even though she was at risk, Waad told HollywoodLife, ‘ We were protesting in the street [but] you come back home watching the formal [TV] channels…[and the government said], “This is just fake news.”’
