Last Men in Aleppo

When the shelling stops in Aleppo, the first people running toward the rubble are the White Helmets: not trained soldiers but a search and rescue organisation made of volunteers. The film follows a few of these men through their ordinary lives as well as their work. Alongside the digging, there are the moments when they take their children to school or try to build a fish pond. The question at the center is not military but personal: stay or go. Several of the founding members argue it out openly, and the film does not make the answer easy. The men who stay are seen to be exhausted as much as heroic. Feras Fayyad directed; Steen Johannessen edited the film and is credited as co-director. It won the Grand Jury Prize for documentary at Sundance in 2017 and was nominated for the documentary feature Oscar in 2018, making Fayyad the first Syrian director nominated for an Academy Award. Who it's for: Viewers who can take field documentary at the level of war reporting, and who want the civilian side of the Syrian war. Who it's not for: The footage is heavy and unmediated, including uncensored images of death and injured children. It also offers no framework explaining the political background.