The new trailer for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary, “Last Men in Aleppo” shows a raw and visceral glimpse into the Syrian civil war. The film follows a volunteer defense group known as the White Helmets as they evade bombing after bombing trying to rescue their friends and family.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Nowhere is the human toll of Syria’s ongoing civil war more brutally manifest than in the lives of Aleppo’s “White Helmets”—first responders to the devastating bombing and terrorist attacks that have pushed this city to the brink of collapse. Volunteers Khaled, Mahmoud, and Subhi rush toward bomb sites while others run away. They search through collapsed buildings for the living and dead. Contending with fatigue, dwindling ranks, and concerns for their families’ safety, they must decide whether to stay or to flee a city in ruins.
An unforgettable portrait of reluctant heroes, Last Men in Aleppo employs a strict vérité approach but unfolds like a classical tragedy. Directed by Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad in collaboration with the Aleppo Media Center, it’s a patchwork of resonant moments—some horrifying (pulling lifeless infants from the rubble), others improbably hopeful (playing a makeshift soccer game, building a fishpond, driving kids to a playground during a ceasefire). Together they are a testament to mankind’s capacity for unspeakable atrocity and an ode to courage and compassion.
Written and directed by Firas Fayyad, “The Last Men In Aleppo” opens May 3rd in New York at the Metrograph, May 18th in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Music Hall with a nationwide rollout to follow thereafter.