Nagieb Khaja: De hvide hjelme i Aleppo

Han laver mad til kollegerne på redningsholdet, den lille enhed af civilforsvaret i Syriens oprørskontrollerede bydele sammensat af unge frivillige mænd, denne lille enhed, som Nagieb Khaja over nogle dage med sin film skildrer, har sit kvarter et sted i Aleppo. Meget af tiden går med at være parat og så vente, hvile, snakke, spise. For at rykke ud når bomberne falder og spærrer folk inde i deres huse, levende, sårede og døde. Mændene med de hvide hjælme er ”dem som leder efter livet under dødens ruiner”, som en eller anden har skrevet med spray på en gademur mur et sted i kvarteret.

Først er der i et afsnit spejderen, udkigsposten, som konstant afsøger himmelrummet for fly og melder til kollegerne i mandskabsrummene, når et bombeangreb er på vej. Han kan ikke selv deltage i rdningsarbejdet direkte. Han fortæller kort og mandigt, hvordan han kom i klemme under en militær træfning og som redningsarbejder blev isoleret blandt en snes bevæbnede mænd, hvordan han blev voldsomt mishandlet. De går direkte efter redningsarbejdere. Så er der holdets leder, som forklarer at De hvide hjelme er et humanitært og absolut ikke militært foretagende støttet af en række internationale organisationer. De er mænd fra alle fag, mennesker som ikke vil flygte, de mener det er deres by og de vil som civilforsvarsgruppe være forrest, når dette er overstået og Syrien skal genopbygges.

Et russisk flyangreb afbryder samtalerne, redderne kommer under voldsomt bombardement, da de når frem til de ramte huse, og et efterfølgende fly i samme akse i en velkendt taktik kaster sine bomber netop mod redningsfolkene som under deres arbejde er uden dækning, og en af dem bliver såret. Filmen følger ambulancen til hospitalet som nødvendigvis er hemmeligt. Flyene sigter mod alt redningsarbejde. Efter angrebet fortsætter livet i byen som normalt, det gør det hver dag trods bombeanfald. Sådan var det i august under optagelserne, men siden er bombningerne af Aleppo blevet værre oplyser et skilt. Og redderen Shaaban er blevet dræbt. Filmen tilegnes ham.

Det er en god film. Ærligt, reelt, uden at lægge til og uden at trække fra, tror jeg, rapporterer Nagieb Khaja som han har vænnet os til gennem sine tidligere dokumentarer, sine mange artikler og utallige Facebookopslag med iagtagelser fra rejserne, som han har foretaget modigt og erfarent. Han og hans dokumentar er i sit sprog præget af redningsfolkenes sande rolige enkle folkelighed, her er hverken følelser eller synspunkter eller situationsbedømmelse ude af kontrol. Ikke et øjeblik.

Danmark, 2016. 25 min. Produceret af Nagieb Khaja / Tom Greenwood for Al Jazeera. Filmkommentaren anmeldelse: 4 af 6 penne. Sendt på DR2 i aftes 18. oktober 2016. Kan nogle dage ses på DR TV:

https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/annulleret/de-hvide-hjelme-i-aleppo#!/

SYNOPSIS

Nagieb Khaja is an award-winning Danish journalist and filmmaker who covered the wars in Afghanistan and Syria. His report and synopsis A day in the life of Aleppo’s White Helmets is written 14 Aug 2016 when he spent 12 days with a team of rescue workers. In war, he witnessed their special bond:

Aleppo, Syria – It’s around midnight and two rescue workers are engulfed in smoke, hosing down a fire in a burned out shop in Hanano district. Close to the frontline in the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo, Hanano is often exposed to artillery fire and aerial bombings.

The body of an old man who was killed by flying shrapnel, lies on the pavement outside.

“It was a Russian aircraft,” says a passer-by. “The poor guy was crossing the street when the bomb hit.”

An ambulance arrives and tells the rescue workers that they will take care of the body. The White Helmets rescue team is desperate to get moving, yelling at their colleagues to hurry up and get in the truck.

The plane had returned after the first responders arrived and bombed the area a second time. Their colleague Ahmed Badr was hit, and the team now heads to the hospital, anxious to find out what has happened to him.

I lived and filmed with a group of rescuers from the Syrian Civil Defence, better known as the White Helmets, for 10 days last December.

The White Helmets began in 2013 as an ad hoc group of local volunteers in Hanano who would head to bombed places to try to save people.

But extracting survivors is a complicated and difficult task and in the beginning, despite their best efforts, they lacked expertise, which resulted in victims dying under the rubble. The first White Helmets received training in southern Turkey from Turkish earthquake rescuers, before heading back to Syria with equipment and uniforms, including their namesake white helmets.

They now work out of 119 centres in the liberated areas of eight western provinces (Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Latakia, Homs, Daraa, Damascus and Damascus countryside) and have around 3,000 volunteers, including two teams of women. To date, these volunteers have saved over 60,000 lives.

The men on the Hanano team are aged between 19 and 33. Their routine is relatively simple. They have a “spotter” who communicates with the team by radio – when a place is hit, the team is alerted and guided to the right location.

Their work is psychologically gruelling; they witness death and risk their own lives almost daily. But the team is close, bonded by humour and their constant ribbing of one another… Read more:

www.aljazeera.com: link (with a link to the film, ENGLISH version)

MORE LINKS

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/person/da/177130.aspx?id=177130 (DANSK biografi)

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/person/en/177130.aspx?id=177130 (ENGLISH biography)

http://politiken.dk/udland/fokus_int/borgerkrigenisyrien/

https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/de-hvide-hjelme  

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Allan Berg Nielsen
Allan Berg Nielsen

Allan Berg Nielsen started the first documentary cinema in Randers, Denmark way back in the 1970’es. He did so at the museum, where he was employed. He got the (16mm) films from the collection of the National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral). He organised a film festival in his home city, became a member of the Board of Directors of the Film Board, started to write about films in diverse magazines, were a juror at several festivals and wrote television critiques in the local newspaper. From 1998-2003 Allan Berg was documentary film consultant (commissioning editor) at The Danish Film Institute, a continuation of the Film Board. Since then free lance consultant in documentary matters.

abn@filmkommentaren.dk

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