The fact that I wasn't deeply affected by The Cave and won't think about it much again speaks more to the combination of having already watched For Sama and the fatigue of the death race and school than to a poor job by the filmmakers. As I learned in For Sama, it's upsetting to watch people trying to live and be happy in Syria as the regime attacks innocent people. Amani is amazing, and if one thing works really well in the film, it's the difference one woman made during crisis in Syria. My biggest problem with the film was that it didn't feel human - we don't get to know any of the victims or really even much about the workers, and instead feels more like scene after scene of pain and desperation. Not a bad movie, but I'd recommend watching For Sama and skipping The Cave personally.
The Cave
2019
Action / Documentary / War
The Cave
2019
Action / Documentary / War
Plot summary
Director Feras Fayyad returns to his native war-torn Syria to follow a dedicated team of female doctors who tirelessly treat casualties in an underground hospital while battling systemic sexism. Shot from 2016 to 2018, The Cave belongs to the top rank of war films. Syrian director Feras Fayyad takes us to a subterranean landscape that feels akin to the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max (1979). With life too dangerous above ground, survivors create a network of secret tunnels under the city of Ghouta, near Damascus, for an underground hospital maintained by women doctors. In contrast to the many Syrian documentaries made from cellphone footage or shaky cameras, Feras Fayyad takes great care to visualize the landscape and its memorable occupants with artful cinematography. For anyone who feels jaded by Syria coverage, this work stands apart. The heart of the film is Dr. Amani, a young Syrian woman operating in unimaginable conditions with great humor and fortitude. When not tending to patients - many of whom are small children - she's forced to justify her work to chauvinistic men who insist that a woman should be at home fulfilling domestic duties, not running a hospital. The claustrophobia of Amani's workplace is mitigated by the high spirits of her crew, while occasional forays above ground temper relief from close quarters with harrowing scenes of a city reduced to rubble.
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The Cave is brutal and honest, but not as human as its 2019 documentary complement, For Sama
The best and most important movie of 2019
More frightening than any Hollywood horror. i was disturbed. I cried. More importantly, I was educated, and applauded. In our hopelessly shallow world with little hope, I clung to the fact that kind and brave people still exist. And kudos (the sincerest) to the survivors of war. 'The Cave' is a motivator for us to be better.
I'd long debated with myself which of the fictions '1917', 'Marriage Story' and 'An Elephant Sitting Still' was the movie of the year but this brutal reality of doctors and their helpers working and living in a labyrinth of caves beneath a war-destroyed city is the clear winner. And that a place it above other shining documentaries such as 'Edge of Democracy' and 'For Sama' strongly expresses how impressed and moved I am.
Director Feras Fayyad, I wish I could shake your hand. Dr. Amani Ballour and everyone like her, I want to hug you in thanks. I'm glad some of you got out. It hurts to think of those doctors and staff arrested after the movie, and the unnamed doctor who died in prison.
Heartfelt
Like a book I couldn't put down. Watched it through to the end and was exhausted, exhilarated and left with a feeling that how on earth has humanity come to this.
I feel powerless. Nothing I can give or do will change this. I look at the world leaders and despair.
Film wise, what a wonderful job the crew did in producing such an outstanding film. I thought virtually everything about it was just right. The characters, the camera work, the sound and editing were mostly spot on.
Thank you.