Academy Awards 2020: How the Syrian War has taken over best documentary nominations for 3 consecutive years
The Syrian Civil War has been raging on for more than eight years now. The multi-sided war is fought between the Ba'athist Syrian Arab Republic led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, along with domestic and foreign allies, and various domestic and foreign forces opposing both the Syrian government and each other in varying combinations.
Currently, the Syrian Civil War is the second-deadliest war of the 21st century and the war is estimated to have claimed between more than 380,000 lives and injured upwards of two million people.
Over the past three years, there has been at least one movie documenting the Syrian plight that has been nominated for the Best Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards. For the 92nd Oscars, there are two films, 'For Sama' and 'The Cave'.
Feras Fayyad, Syrian filmmaker, directed 'The Cave'. He also wrote and directed the 2017 documentary 'Last Men in Aleppo' that portrays the life in Aleppo during the war and particularly sheds light on the search-and-rescue missions of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization consisting of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes and attacks in the hope of saving lives. 'Last Men in Aleppo' was nominated for the Oscars in 2018.
'The Cave' is seen as a companion piece to 'Last Men in Aleppo' and profiles Amani Ballour, a female doctor in Ghouta who is operating a makeshift hospital in a cave during the Syrian Civil War.
Like 'The Cave', 'For Sama' also chronicles the lives of doctors in war-torn Syria. Written and directed by Waad Al-Kateab (Edward Watts co-directs), 'For Sama' focuses on Al-Kateab's husband, Hamza Al-Kateab, one of the few doctors left in Aleppo, as they raise their daughter Sama Al-Kateab during the Syrian Civil War.
In 2019 as well, there was another film set during the Syrian War that got nominated. 'Of Fathers and Sons', directed by Syrian-Kurdish director Talal Derki, however, tells a different kind of story -- it focuses on radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria.
That there have been nominations for documentary features chronicling the events of the Syrian Civil War for three consecutive years at the Academy Awards is quite telling.
Documentary features like 'The Cave' and 'For Sama' also shifts the narrative to focus on the stories of women and their perspective during war times. These films especially have been used by the likes of filmmakers Al-Kataeb and Fayyad to record the war crimes of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Kataeb told Time Magazine, "Whatever the regime tries to say through propaganda, I have the evidence what happened."
The 92nd Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020, and will be televised live on ABC at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT.