On the weekend I watched the movie For Sama, at a charity screening organised by South Gippsland Rural Australians for Refugees.
It was compelling and harrowing. Real-life iPhone footage, shot by 26-year-old female Syrian filmmaker, Waad al-Kateab, documents the horrendous Syrian civil war raging around them. There are no actors, just real people. This includes being right inside the operating theatre of a makeshift hospital on the front line of Syrian capital city, Aleppo, during its siege by forces of dictator Asaad’s regime.
Real heroes do not carry guns.
The story is recorded for Saba’s daughter, born during the siege and who knows nothing but war for the first couple of years life. The incredible hero of the movie is Doctor Hamza al-Kateab, Waad’s husband, who stays to care for his community, which is going through constant hell from Russian air strikes and shelling from Syrian government forces.
Dr al-Kateab could have left for a comfortable life in the west but chose to stay. He delivers care in a makeshift hospital where sterilisation is but a dream, with blood everywhere given the nature of gunshot and shrapnel wounds being treated.
Death is tragic but commonplace. Russian air force planes and choppers drop barrel bombs constantly on civilian residential areas, spreading terror.
The film juxtaposes good and evil.
It features wonderful people: the absolute selfless, best examples of humanity in the actions of the doctors; extreme loyalty and love, from a mother in particular whose son has died from a bomb explosion.
Evil is not portrayed, but present through the unbearable impacts on innocent civilians: Ambulances are shot; barrel bombs dropped on apartment blocks; hospitals targeted for shelling. Those fleeing are shot at, many die. The only reason the hospital survives, is because it’s not mapped, so not identified by Russian and Syrian forces.
After all this, sadly the resistance was overwhelmed. Hamza, Saba and their family are forced to leave, then miraculously make it through the Syrian checkpoint to the outside world.
I do not know their individual fate, but I do know that Syrian refugees who did make it to Australia were then put into the further hell of offshore detention.
The message is clear. Refugees do not uproot their lives at a whim. They flee to survive, after suffering vile regimes or war. The risks they take for safety are extreme and many do not make it.
The reports I hear of our welcoming community are heartwarming. We have groups that help refugees settle and be productive members of our society. I have welcomed many through the Shire’s citizenship ceremony, and I look forward to welcoming many more.
I hope you join me in deeply honouring their unimaginable, heroic journeys.
