For Sama
PBS Distribution | Release Date: July 26, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 12, 2019
Sifting six years’ worth of rubble, al-Kateab turns up beauty and one earthly miracle to set alongside the horrors, but horrors there are. Read full review
100
CineVueChristopher MachellSep 12, 2019
From five years-worth of footage, al-Kateab constructs a narrative of astonishing humanity, clarity and urgency, capturing a global outrage from the perspective of the human and individual. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJul 25, 2019
What a talent Waad is. For Sama is a film made with the instincts of a journalist, the passion of a revolutionary and the beating heart of a mother. Read full review
100
VarietyGuy LodgeJul 25, 2019
Simple in concept and shattering in execution, blending hard-headed reportage with unguarded personal testimony, it’s you-are-there cinema of the most literal order. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyJul 25, 2019
A devastating scrapbook and a confessional journal of sorts. It’s also a personal cinematic endeavor as opposed to a historical crash course in the vein of “Cries From Syria,” another superb documentary on the subject, but one with different ambitions. Read full review
100
CineVueRhys HandleyJun 28, 2019
For Sama is a clarion call to the ignorant West and a testament to the sustaining power of unconditional love in the face of absolute horror. It is terrible to witness and absolutely essential viewing for all. Read full review
100
Film ThreatChuck FosterMar 16, 2019
For Sama will be the single most heart-wrenchingly honest film you have ever seen. No amount of acting, elite accolades or story manipulation will ever compare to the genuine truth captured by a woman with a camera in Syria. It is truly an honor and a privilege to see this film. Read full review
91
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 20, 2019
The latest in a series of work about the cost of the refugee crisis and human migration, For Sama is a harrowing experience and certainly one of the most essential films of the year. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzJan 14, 2020
For all the devastation, the certain knowledge on the part of the resisters that they couldn’t hold out forever, they display a striking buoyancy, which the film captures in moving detail. Read full review
90
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeJul 25, 2019
The activists of this film, including al-Kateab herself, don’t speak in the language of philosophers or politicians. Their quotidian aspirations — to build a garden, to send their children safely to school — demonstrate the brutality of the government’s response, but they also invite viewers to picture themselves in the shoes of these modest political dissidents. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenNov 30, 2023
A shockingly raw combination of first-person reporting and personal video diary. Read full review
84
TheWrapSteve PondJun 30, 2019
The footage, as personal as it is horrific, is often hard to watch. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJul 26, 2019
For Sama isn’t a nightmare with pockets of joy so much as it’s a collective dream that’s playing out under a cloud of impenetrable darkness. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeSep 26, 2019
With footage as raw and dramatic as this, it’s a credit to composer Nainita Desai that her score remains restrained and understated throughout, emphasising subtler themes of endurance and empathy, while gesturing gently toward the possibility of hope – of love – even in the midst of tragedy. Read full review
80
EmpireIan FreerSep 11, 2019
For Sama powerfully mixes the personal and the political to thought-provoking, emotional ends. The result is one of the best documentaries of 2019. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 26, 2019
For Sama doesn’t feel like raw footage — it has been carefully shaped, with a bit of movie-­ish suspense during the final hours, when the last of the families in East Aleppo were told they could surrender to the regime but were fired on anyway. The ending is a little fancy for my taste — a montage of the good times and an overhead shot of Waad and her baby walking through the rubble. Read full review
80
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyJul 25, 2019
Following the siege month by month through 2016, the film has a gripping narrative drive, with many sequences that work to variously harrowing and cathartic effect. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerMar 16, 2019
Revisiting some of the events that marked Aleppo’s final year under siege, as well as those that led up to them, the film offers up a rare firsthand account of war from a strictly female perspective, focusing on how conflict affects families, and, especially, the hundreds of innocent victims that are children. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 6, 2019
For Sama is a before-and-after portrait, both literally and figuratively. What begins as a brash, bold, giddily optimistic love story devolves into something far darker, as viewers begin to question why al-Khateab is willing to endanger her child in the name of doomed principles. Read full review
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