For Sama

Colorado Premiere
In Syria under siege, children make an arts and crafts project by painting cheerful colors on a charred, bombed-out school bus. Rubble and twisted rebar are all that remain after Russian airstrikes wipe out Aleppo buildings along with innocent lives. But toddler Sama barely bats an eye when the deafening shelling begins, so accustomed is she to the war-torn violence she was born into. Filmmaker and journalist Waad al-Kateab films the intimate, quotidian details of her own family’s life in the hospital where her husband works as a doctor, set against the horrifying backdrop of the Syrian civil war. For Sama is a raw and heartfelt love letter from mother to daughter that seeks to answer the impossible questions. Will grown-up Sama blame her family for leaving when they should have stayed or for staying when they should have left?