Review of For Sama

A film about the Syrian revolution and civil war, mainly about the siege of Aleppo, as seen through the eyes of a young woman citizen journalist, who documents the siege from the inside. I learned a lot about the horror of being starved and bombed, but not very much about the politics of the revolution. Part way through the film the journalist-woman starts wearing a hijab, but this is not discussed or even commented on. It's not clear at all from the film who the opposition are or what they are fighting for. 

Reading the Wikipedia article about the siege I feel not much wiser, even though I am now better informed. This is part of what it feels like to be living in a post-truth age, where there are no reliable sources of information about anything, and engaging with any aspect of international politics feels like an enormous effort. The article says that both sides used chemical weapons - do I find this plausible? I don't think so, but there is enough doubt in my mind to not know for sure. I know that the Assad regime is monstrous, but I am not at all sure that what the opposition became turned out to be very different.  

Films that focus on the experience on the ground, without any of the background or political context, become an exercise in emotional manipulation. I was put in mind of the film about the Kyiv uprising, Winter on Fire. Watching that I thought I was being played, and that's my ultimate conclusion about this too.