“The Cave” – Movie Review

This week at Lincoln Center, I attended the New York Premiere of “The Cave”, a new documentary by Feras Fayyad.

Synopsis

A team of dedicated Syrian physicians and nurses frantically try to help the wounded in a secluded makeshift underground hospital.  

Story

Amani Ballour should not be in this situation.  At only 30 years old, she is one of many young physicians on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, who work in what is known as The Cave.  The Cave is a skeletal version of a hospital; it was constructed underground within a warren of tunnels to protect civilians during attacks on them led by Bashar al-Assad.  These attacks include bombings by Russian warplanes. Although there are other, more experienced doctors working there, they voted and elected Amani to be their leader at this facility; her impressive skills and leadership ability earned her this position. 

The stress of war takes its toll on everyone – including and especially the doctors and nurses working in The Cave.  At various times, we see them as human beings: they have moments of emotional distress on the one hand, yet appear deliriously happy when celebrating a birthday on the other hand.  Much of their emotional distress comes not just from the war itself, but also for their inability to better help the wounded who find their way to The Cave for treatment; this inability does not come from limited skills, but due to limited resources.  Another a source of their emotional distress is the fact that they are far from their family.   

One night, a great many people are brought into The Cave; the physicians are puzzled because these men, women and children bear no visible wounds.  Normally, the staff is treating people who were shot or hit with shrapnel from the bombings. But this was different. After detecting an unusual smell on the clothing of the children, one of the more senior doctors determines that these people were the victims of a chemical attack by Assad.  Dealing with a shortage of medicine, the doctors and nurses are forced to formulate a plan to at the very least relieve their pain, if not prevent them from dying.  

 

Review

In order to fully understand the horror of Assad’s war on his own people in Syria, it is necessary to see Feras Fayyad’s remarkable new documentary “The Cave”.  The reality of this devastation can only be fully grasped by watching this film; another thing you can better appreciate after a viewing is that the depths of Assad’s evil knows no bottom.  The more this war tries to rob its non-fighting civilians of its humanity, the brighter their humanity shines, almost as if in defiance to the man behind this battle. Director Fayyad has done an outstanding job in showing it all, as difficult as it may be to watch at times. 

Aside from the story itself (which in no way is to be trivialized), the filmmaking is amazing, especially when taking into consideration the conditions under which it was shot; in a movie theater alone, the sound of the bombs being dropped nearby was jarring enough – but imagine what it’s like when you’re just a few yards (or feet) away from them.  Additionally, there was a great shot (presumably done via a camera attached to a drone) that flew over the city; this provided a better perspective on the level of severity of the destruction that resulted from the frequent attacks.        

Following the screening, there was an interview with director Feras Fayyad and a couple of the film’s producers, Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær.  Fayyad says that while the doctors in this hospital do what they do to try to help, they also do it in order to survive themselves. Footage was also used from the hospital’s own surveillance cameras.  He reports that in a single night where Syrians were attacked with chemical weapons, 1500 people were killed. The producers said that the digital footage that was shot was uploaded while still in Syria, but subsequently downloaded in Sweden (where the offices of the production company are located) so as not to have any interference from the Syrian government who insists the documentary is a fake.