‘Is this just a long, beautiful dream?’: Syrian filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab on her country’s future

After 14 years of struggle, Syria has entered a new and unsure chapter. The nation is devastated – 90 per cent of Syrians reside in poverty.

Regardless of the challenges as much as a million folks dwelling in camps and displacement websites throughout the country’s northwest intend to return dwelling throughout the subsequent yr.

As these Syrians put together to return dwelling, they’re starting the troublesome strategy of rebuilding and confronting the previous.

Ms. Al-Kateab, the filmmaker behind the award-winning documentary, For Sama, captured life underneath siege in Aleppo earlier than fleeing the nation in 2016.

Since then, she has remained a highly effective advocate for the Syrian folks, co-founding Motion For Sama, a marketing campaign, advocating for human rights, dignity, and accountability for all.

In this interview with UN Information, as Syria stands at a crossroads, she shares her willpower to verify justice isn’t forgotten within the country’s subsequent chapter. 

This interview has been edited for readability and brevity. 

UN Information: Waad, how have you ever been processing the previous few months?

Waad Al-Kateab: I believe it’s actually complicated. We’re over the moon, however on the identical time, it was one thing that appeared so far-off.

I believed the ending of my story was dying in exile, not with the ability to return, by no means with the ability to see this beautiful day. And it just occurred out of the blue, with none indication. 

We weren’t prepared, however that doesn’t matter. It occurred, and we’re actually joyful.

On the identical time, the ache and grief we needed to undergo for the final 14 years – and for therefore many people, even 50 years, when Hafez al-Assad was president – it was just an excessive amount of to deal with.

I’m nonetheless pondering, is this actual? Am I just having a lengthy, beautiful dream?

UN Information: Have you ever been in touch with folks on the bottom in Syria? What have they been telling you?

Waad Al-Kateab: Till now, due to my refugee standing, I used to be not in a position to return. However I am working on this, and hopefully, at any second I’ll get citizenship within the UK, so I can transfer freely.

My dad and mom went again in January, and a few of our associates too. I used to be additionally capable of talk with my household who have been in Syria the entire time, whereas earlier than, I could not even name or ship a message as a result of I used to be nervous of what the regime might do to them.

It’s not simple – the nation is drained, the economic system could be very dangerous, there’s no electrical energy, no water however what everybody has in frequent is the sensation that it’s undoubtedly a new starting.

We’re afraid, however we’re not likely scared. We will do something we would like.

UN Information: While you nonetheless lived in Aleppo, you spent years capturing each the resilience of individuals and the devastation round them. What moments have stayed with you from that point?

Waad Al-Kateab: To be trustworthy, the scenario I couldn’t settle for was after we have been displaced out of Aleppo.

I understood early on that we have been combating in opposition to a dictatorship that may cease at nothing. I used to be okay with that. I knew the chance I used to be taking, the chance my husband Hamza was taking, even our personal daughter. 

We have been combating in our personal approach – me, with my digital camera, my husband, together with his work within the hospital.

Then got here the siege – six months with no treatment, no meals, no fundamental providers. After which, pressured displacement. That, for me, was essentially the most merciless factor: throw us out from our personal nation the place we needed to be.

It was the second which actually broke me. Saying goodbye to every part – my dwelling there, the hospital, the folks we knew.

For the previous few years, I’ve pressured myself to not image going again as a result of it didn’t appear doable. However now, it’s.

So many individuals I do know went again. They ship me footage from the neighbourhood, the college: “See, it’s there. We’re again.”

And I can’t wait to be there myself.

UN Information: You speak about your pleasure, your loved ones’s pleasure, and this chapter closing. Do you assume the toughest a part of the work has been executed now?

Waad Al-Kateab: Positively. The toughest work has been executed.

Now, with this new chapter, there’s a lot to do, and it’s troublesome in a very completely different approach. However the shelling, the bombings – that’s over.

There are such a lot of necessary points – transitional justice, detainees, the disappeared. There are very troublesome conversations to have about revenge; and the economic system – it has greater than crashed.

There are such a lot of authorities, agendas and worldwide gamers in a nation ranging from scratch. However now, we’re in cost. It’s very heavy to hold however we’re right here and we’re going to do it.

I’m very hopeful and excited.

UN Information: You point out transitional justice, what does actual accountability seem like to you now?

Waad Al-Kateab: Bashar Al-Assad was accountable, however there are a lot of others – those that ordered killings, those that carried them out, those that helped him. And I’m not just speaking about people, but in addition overseas governments and armies.

There is no such thing as a solution to have a future in Syria if we don’t face what occurred. For everybody accountable, it should begin with an apology and finish with accountability. 

Proper now, militias and former regime troopers nonetheless have weapons, making an attempt to cover or defend themselves. That is very severe, and all weapons needs to be handed to the brand new authorities.

For victims like us, now it’s about asking: what do we would like? What can occur? How will we return to regular life? There’s a lot to be executed.

UN Information: You’ve lived within the UK for nearly a decade now. You mentioned you’d wish to return. Would that be long-term?

Waad Al-Kateab: To be trustworthy, we by no means imagined this second would occur, so we constructed a life away from Syria.

Even in our conversations with our daughters, I needed them to like Syria and perceive what occurred but in addition, I needed to guard them.

Now, I see they picked up far more than we realised, they picked up what we felt. For them, Syria was a place the place folks die.

They don’t perceive and so they ask: “What if Assad remains to be hiding there? What if he’s ready for us to go after which he kills us?”

The dialogue of going again has triggered many troublesome issues for them.

For me and Hamza, we don’t have to consider it, we wish to return in fact. So, we agreed on one go to and after we come again, we’ll discuss – what we would like, what they need. They undoubtedly have an equal say.

No matter determination we take, a method or one other, we will probably be again.

UN Information: Together with your advocacy, what position do you see your self having within the rebuilding of Syria?

Waad Al-Kateab:  We’ve executed a lot all over the world – working with communities who know Syria properly and others who know nothing about it. 

For us, the largest achievement has at all times been consciousness and preserving the narrative of what occurred. Now, greater than ever, that’s a precedence on the bottom in Syria.

For me, it’s not just about For Sama as a movie, however about every part I’ve realized as a filmmaker – years of telling my very own story and others’. Now, I wish to deliver it again to Syria by way of screenings and conversations, not just as a movie occasion, however as a house to listen to from folks.

That is a part of transitional justice, particularly acknowledgment – serving to native communities discuss to one another, perceive one another’s experiences and begin therapeutic.

UN Information: What can be your message to the worldwide neighborhood as we speak?

Waad Al-Kateab: Syria isn’t like another battle. Folks tried to match it to Iraq or Afghanistan, however this is completely different. Even how the regime fell and what comes subsequent is unknown.

Because the U.S. slashes overseas help, Syrian civil society is prone to collapse. Organizations that fought for justice and guarded civilians for over a decade are actually struggling. The worldwide neighborhood should step up.

A profitable transition have to be Syrian-led, free from armed teams or overseas affect.

The world has a accountability to assist this in a approach that displays Syrians’ aspirations for peace, justice and accountability.