The Cave

Shot between 2016 and 2018, The Cave is an unique testimony from the city of Ghouta close by Damascus, and the infinite network of secret tunnels below the city. Director Feras Fayyad, who’s last film was the Oscar nominated documentary Last Men in Aleppo, aims his lens at the hospital doctor Amani, and the strenuous conditions she and her colleagues work within. Deep sorrow and despair lives side by side with joy and laughter in their everyday work. As if the conditions weren’t difficult enough, Dr. Amani constantly has to justify her career choices to chauvinist men who believe a woman’s place is at home, making her situation all the more absurd.

Feras Fayyad (b. 1984) is a Syrian-born director, producer, journalist and cinematographer, now based in Copenhagen. He previously directed several shorts and documentaries, including My Escape (2016) which deals with the refugee crisis. His last film Last Men in Aleppo (2017) won several awards, and like The Cave it was nominated for an Oscar.