Movie Info
Movie Name: Last Men in Aleppo
Studio: Aleppo Media Center
Genre(s): Documentary
Release Date(s): January 23, 2017 (Sundance Film Festival)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Life in a warzone
Syria is in the middle of a war and the people who live there are stuck in a warzone. While a group of men known as White Helmets rush into the bombing zones in the hope of saving survivors, the danger in Aleppo continues to grow. White Helmet’s founders Khaled Omar Harrah, Mahmoud, and Subhi Alhussen realize they are risking their lives and the lives of their families for a dream of peace that might never exist.
Directed by Firas Fayyad, Last Men in Aleppo (آخر الرجال في حلب) is a documentary film. The film won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
People with families destroyed
Growing up, I didn’t have to worry about being bombed at the playground. I don’t go work and wonder if the building I’m working in will collapse or be blown-up. It isn’t a world that people in the United States understand or know. It is easy to forget when you hear numbers and see images that these are people with families and lives…who didn’t intend to be “warriors”.
The movie is a tough watch. When watching the film, you realize there is little hope…and watching it after recent events (aka post-2017), you know there is even less hope for a good outcome for Aleppo and the people. The movie does a good job reminding us that these aren’t “characters”, but real, living people who are trying to help their country. They have families who just want to slide on a slide and should be able to…which makes the ending of the film even more tragic.
No one should “get used to this”
The movie also looks solid. The film crew did a great job contrasting the destruction of the repeated bombings with the fact that these bombings are occurring where civilians are trying to live and work. You have the White Helmets pulling bodies out of collapses locations and putting them in body bags. Not only does it end on a horrific event, but it also shows a child being pulled from a building which could be hard for many to see.
Last Men in Aleppo is one of those documentaries that probably won’t be seen by a lot but should be seen by more. If it was seen by more people, there might be a different response to the war in Syria or at least how it is approached. There isn’t an easy solution to the war, but some sort of end must be figured out before more people die, more anger grows, and hate continues to flow.
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