OSCARS 2020: The Cave (2019)

It seems the on-going conflicts in the Middle East remain a topic that makes the Academy stand up and take notice. Since I've started paying attention to the category, there has been at least one documentary nominated every year about the topic. 2020 sees three nominated docs situated in that area. “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl),” about Afghanistan, is nominated in the Documentary Shorts department. In the feature documentary category, there's the already reviewed “For Sama” and “The Cave.” Both films are about hospitals secretly operated in war torn Syria. “The Cave” comes from director Feras Fayyad, who made the previously nominated “Last Men in Aleppo.”

Specifically, “The Cave” is about Amani Ballour, a female doctor in Ghouta, Syria. Since the Russian-backed bombings began in 2015, the city has become a constantly endangered war zone that is nearly impossible to get out of. Ballour and the hospital she works in struggle every day to save people – especially the children – injured in the attack. Soon, the constant bombardments force the hospital to move underground. Literally underground, as the medical professionals set up inside a series of connecting tunnels and caves. Ballour and her team face struggles both personal and professional as they fight to save more lives.

One can't help but compare “For Sama” and “The Cave,” considering they are set in the same country, wrapped up in the same war, and about women in similar situation. “The Cave” is thankfully not as harrowing as “For Sama,” in that it doesn't feature quite as much graphic footage of children and adults dying or being injured. (This might be because National Geographic, the film's production company, likes to broadcast their films on television.) Still, it is an intense watch. The doctors in “The Cave” do what they can to calm their patients, playing classical music during surgery, even while warplanes fly overhead and bombs shell the city. More than once, Amani and her team have to keep as many people safe as possible as explosions go off around them. Most disturbing is the last third, when we see the direct results of the chemical attacks on the city. Or an especially heart-rending moment when a mother wails in agony after her son dies.

As good as “The Cave” is at putting the viewer into this horrible situation, the moments that resonate the most with me aren't so intense. In the war zone, food is scarce. Nurses have to make do with rice and margarine. As the nurses are also tending to patients while cooking, the meals often come out under-or-over cooked. (Though the doctors don't complain too much.) This is a side of life in a war zone you perhaps didn't consider. Yet the staff still try to make time for the simple pleasures. They throw a very humble birthday party for Amani. She does what she can to distract and communicate with the children there. It's inspiring and touching to see such human behavior in such a dire situation.

What “The Cave” specifically zeroes in on are the struggles facing a woman in Ghouta. An early scene has a man coming to Ballour asking for a rare medication for his wife. When she explains no hospital in Syria can fill the prescription, he asks if a male doctor can help her. Her father calls repeatedly, asking her to come home. She reflects on what her life might had been if the war hadn't started, how she would've continues her education and been a pediatrician by now. Still, despite the adversity she faces, Amani Ballour really strikes the viewer as a hero. She's in the middle of a hellish area but is sacrificing so much – including risking her lives – to save and protect people.

Visually speaking, Fayyad's film is down-on-the-ground. His camera is in these real places, as the bombs fall and people scream, capturing the events as they happen. So, naturally, the colors are pretty dark and the camera work is pretty shaky. Yet there is absolutely value in capturing so much real life. “The Cave” is not as intense a watch as “For Sama” or “Last Men in Aleppo,” which I'm honestly thankful for. It's a more accessible film while being no less insightful to the plight of the innocent Syrian people, as a war they never asked for rages around them. [7/10]