Fleeing Aleppo

No, I am not in Syria, not do I plan to go there, but I did watch a documentary tonight called "Goodbye Aleppo", from the BBC, and with the Director attending for Q&A. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wz1hy.

The BBC specifically commissioned the piece, i.e. paid 4 citizen journalists (who had done some work for the BBC before) to document their last few months in East Aleppo as it was taken over by the "Regime" (as they call it) and the "opposition" lost control and fled, along with 100,000 or so citizens.

What makes it slightly different to a typical documentary is that there is not really a story or purpose to the piece, and no real direction (though the BBC were talking to the journalists most days): it was 100 hours of footage cut down to 1 hour (subtitled as all the language is in Arabic), shown chronologically, and just showing their lives really. There was no voice over, just occasional written statements on the date and situation.After 3 years of being "under attack" having taken over the city in the revolution, the documentary opens with the the end-game, when the city really was encircled and under siege; bombed all the time and then invaded. As the space for the citizens to live in shrunk over time, the opposition basically surrendered and everyone was evacuated.

The way it is shown means there is some insight into what it is like living in this situation and seeing how it changes, some perspectives from people living there, and of course, this is not an optimistic film. But there is no explanation - so we don't really know who the City Council are or what they do or their role with the fighters, but we see a few minutes where the journalists attend a meeting there where a decision is made to ask the UN for help and evacuate. 

We don't see anything of the Regime (apart from bombs going off, helicopters and fighter jets flying overhead etc) or of the Opposition fighters; but since there is no script or real direction we also don't get a full picture of how they live/survive. They have some fuel for their motorbike and generator; they eat some basics like bread and lentils, but we don't know where they get it from (there is certainly no sign of any markets or life on most of the streets as everyone is hiding in basements most of the time).

It makes for quite interesting viewing, and somewhat like the Titanic, one kind of knows how it ends--in the collapse of the city-- though thankfully the journalists survive (it's not quite like a typical Hollywood film with them fleeing under fire, but they are trying to avoid snipers and hide in basements as bombs go off overhead). 

It brings over the helplessness of the people, the pointlessness of the revolution, the craziness of the destruction, the futility of war, the sorrow and loss that affected so many people. And there is no hope. Not in the documentary, not now (6 months later). Its not optimistic. It is a record. It shows the desire of the citizen journalists to want to record what is happening for the record, even if it won't make any difference. They fought a revolution, they lost all their loved ones, they survived for 4 years, they had to eventually abandon their city and their homes with nothing. The four of them survived (2 now in Turkey, 2 in other parts of Syria). And that's it.

Does this documentary achieve anything to help them? No. Will it make any difference to the Syrian conflict? No. Will it achieve anything? There will be some awareness into what such a conflict is like among those who watch it but I can't imagine it will (like almost any other photos or films or reports of war ever have) prevent any future conflicts.

The Director added some insights: such as the intentional decisions not to show both sides, not to provide a voice-over, not to provide context (which is so complicated it would be hard anyway), not to provide much direction or instructions, and interestingly, to verify every single scene (and almost every frame) though forensic analysis of the images and metadata, cross-referencing with others who were there, and others who were not but knew the city. It was an expensive operation. 

The BBC tried to ensure accuracy in the footage. They tried to be neutral in their editing whilst trying to also provide some meaning here and there (the odd discussion about how the original uprising felt, about how they lost family members, about the infighting among the opposition affecting the opposition's success etc). Overall they just wanted to document what was happening, since it was so hard to do so.