A personal look at the "Last Men in Aleppo"
A Sundance-prize winning documentary is giving audiences a tragic look at the ongoing conflict in Syria and its devastating effects.
Syrian-born filmmaker Feras Fayyad tells the story of "The Last Men in Aleppo." The film goes inside Syria's besieged city to introduce the world to a group of volunteers working to save the city and those inside. The "White Helmets" are a group of first responders from the Syrian Civil Defense who make daily visits to various bombing sites to rescue trapped victims.
Throughout the film we learn about the group's commitment to saving the city and the struggle to survive in a city in ruins. Fayyad spoke with CBS News about the journey to tell this personal story.
How did you decide now was the time to tell this story?
This story is what I have witnessed and seen my whole life. I have seen people killed in front of me. I have been imprisoned twice by the Assad regime because I've made commentary about freedom of speech. While I was in prison, the idea of this documentary kept coming up in my mind. So during that time I started to contact the men in the white helmets. The main question I wanted to ask was what motivated them to run toward the places that all the people were running from.
Many of the men we meet in the documentary spend a significant amount of time contemplating their own lives. While filming in Aleppo, did you ever feel concerned for your own life?
You know, Aleppo is a city I know because I grew up in it. I know the places and how to capture the beauty and the ugliness of the city. The bombing that was happening around me was a warning of the death, but I tried to show as much of it for the audience. I wanted the audience to know what the meaning of life is in Aleppo. I wanted people to watch and wonder why anyone would live in a city that has around 20 bombings a day from forces in the sky. That was my big motivation. So thinking about how these men were saving people made me not think at all about the dangers I was facing.
Many people in Aleppo try to carry on with their normal lives despite what is happening around them. How are they able to do so?
This is one of the things that I wanted to capture. The news is more focused on the death and killing in Aleppo. I tried to capture the humanitarian acts happening there. The weddings, the market, people walking down the street and going to buy medicine or fish. I wanted to show that there is a sense of the life that no one would expect in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
When I was in Aleppo, I saw how much the people loved life, and I think that was represented by the people in the film. They always tried to ignore the death around them and live between these two worlds. I wanted to show the psychological and mental fighting happening inside their character. I wanted to show how much these people love their city and their country and how they want to stay. Even though everything around them is telling them to leave, they still want to stay.
Who are you hoping sees this film?
Everyone I meet tells me they want to help. What makes me happy is that U.S. citizens are telling me this film has reached them and touched them. I'm looking to show it to policymakers and I would love to show it to [President Donald] Trump. I would love to show it to the decision-makers in the U.S. and justice and human rights organizations. I also think the international media decision-makers need to see this. Most of American media know what is going on in Aleppo, but I want to show them a different perspective.
"Last Men in Aleppo" is now in select theaters nationwide.
