Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 6 February 2020
At the Oscars, 'The Cave'

aims to provide hope to Syria

By JAKE COYLE the incoming flow of injured equally difficult to imagine
AP Film Writer and dead — many of them a more inspiring figure than
NEW YORK (AP) — Home is children — is ceaseless. A Ballour.
a complicated notion for smell of chlorine fills the air "I wanted to bring all of the
Feras Fayyad, the director after a chemical attack. struggle against the sad-
of the Oscar-nominated The hospital was adminis- ness, the depression, the
Syrian documentary "The tered by Dr. Amani Ballour, death, the daily attacks on
Cave." His family home in a young woman trained as the hospital, where we can
Syria is believed to have pediatrician, who stayed see the most courageous
This image released by National Geographic shows Dr. Amani, been taken just weeks behind to save as many people and a woman who
center, in the operating room in Syria in a scene from the Oscar
nominated documentary "The Cave." ago as President's Bashar lives as she could. "They is fighting to make a space
Associated Press al-Assad's Russian-backed took the light," she intones for hope," says Fayyad. "We
forces seized the area. His in the film. "We are living in own the narrative here,
family is living in temporary darkness." Ballour was the completely, proudly."
housing near the Turkish only woman leading a hos- Fayyad and Ballour are
border. For several years, pital in Syria; even as she's both coming to the Acad-
Fayyad has been living in tending to wounded, she's emy Awards with a person-
exile in Copenhagen. also combating deeply in- al mission to call for justice
After a lengthy struggle grained misogyny. in Syria and to signal to their
to obtain a visa to attend "When I was young, no one countrymen that all is not
Sunday's Academy Awards tried to tell me that I had hopeless.
that included an outpour- rights, that I can be some- "To be the voice for the
ing of support from the thing important. All the people in Syria who are
film community, Fayyad people around me said, voiceless right now, to sup-
finally arrived last week in 'You'll get married and port them and try to get
Los Angeles. Being among have children,'" Ballour said help in any way, this is my
filmmakers and friends he in an interview by phone. "I goal now," says Ballour,
has made through his two wanted strongly to change speaking in a midtown
Oscar-nominated films, this image, to tell young Manhattan high-rise. "They
Fayyad said, has been a girls that you have rights, have nothing in Syria, noth-
relief. Even a little like being that you can be very im- ing. Even buildings like this,
home. portant, that you are no we don't have."
"There's nothing harder than different than the boys." Fayyad has twice been
losing your home, noth- Like Fayyad, Ballour is com- jailed by the Syrian govern-
ing harder than losing ev- ing to the Oscars from a ment for a total period of
erything around you," said life in exile. She fled Syria in 18 months, so his ability to
Fayyad in an interview by 2018 after the hospital was shoot "The Cave" on loca-
phone. "But there is some- overtaken and moved to tion was challenging. He
thing that gives me hope Turkey. She's applying for depended heavily on his
that I can speak about this asylum in Canada. The Unit- local cinematographers,
and bring more attention ed States last year abruptly communicating remotely
to this situation and remind pulled forces out of Syria, from Copenhagen. Four
the Syrian people: We are a withdrawal that drew a staff members of the hospi-
still human, we still have a rare bipartisan rebuke from tal died during filming.
dream, we still believe in Congress. President Don- It was difficult for Fayyad
justice. ald Trump's administration and Ballour just to get to
For this little moment, I has slashed the number of the Oscars partly due to
would love for 'The Cave' refugees it will accept from the U.S. travel ban on sev-
to bring hope to my coun- Syria. en predominantly Muslim
try and my people." Syria's nine-year civil war countries, including Syria.
"The Cave," Fayyad's fol- have been called the Fayyad's visa was ulti-
low-up to this Oscar-nom- greatest humanitarian cri- mately granted after pro-
inated "The Last Men in sis in the world. Since De- tests were lodged by PEN
Aleppo" (which made him cember, the Syrian gov- America and the Interna-
the first Syrian filmmaker ernment has advanced tional Documentary Asso-
nominated for an Oscar) is into the country's last rebel ciation. Preventing him to
one of the five films nomi- stronghold in northern Syria. travel until last week had its
nated for best documenta- Following the more than 6 own cost, diminishing how
ry at this Sunday's Acade- million refugees already much time Fayyad had to
my Awards. Shot between caused by the war, the do bring attention to Syria
2012 and 2018, it depicts United Nations on Monday before the ceremony. (An-
a subterranean medical said half of a million more other film about war-torn
facility in Eastern Ghouta have been displaced since Syria, Waad Al-Kateab and
during constant bombing Dec. 1, 80% of them wom- Edward Watts' "For Sama,"
by Syrian government forc- en and children. is also nominated for best
es and their Russian allies. It would be hard to fathom documentary.)
The hospital lacks much of a more sorrowful place But the campaign around
what it needs, including than the hospital of "The "The Cave," a National Geo-
anesthetics and food, and Cave." But it would be graphic film, is ongoing.q