50 FEET FROM SYRIA

50 FEET FROM SYRIA

    Price: $350.00

    Code: 2530

    Directed by Skye Fitzgerald
    2015, 39 minutes
    Purchase: $350 | Classroom rental: $125
    Optional closed captions


    A gripping and timely snapshot that provides a glimpse into the plight of Syrian refugees, 50 Feet from Syria uncovers the humanitarian efforts of a Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon who travels to the Turkish border to volunteer to operate on victims of the civil war.

    With a suitcase full of donated stainless-steel bone implants, Syrian-American surgeon Hisham Bismar arrives at a Turkish hospital on the Syrian border, ready for anything. What he finds is horror, chaos, and an ocean of refugees in need of medical care: Colleagues who perform operations without anesthesia, stories of Syrian government snipers targeting children and pregnant women, and images of 55 gallon barrels filled with shrapnel and TNT dropped deliberately on civilians.

    With dull drill bits and ill-fitting bone and joint implants Bismar repairs the bodies of the wounded civilians and fighters fortunate enough to find their way to the hospital.

    Remarkable people perform this remarkable work: "M,", a 'Turkish Schindler' selflessly crossing the border each day to retrieve the wounded and ferry them to the care of surgeons and "AM" a hero among his peers for his willingness to live for years in Syrian field hospitals repeatedly bombed by the Assad regime.

    Subjects & Collections



    Festivals & Awards

    Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Subject, 2016 Academy Awards
    Official Selection, Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival
    Official Selection, DOXA Film Festival
    Official Selection, Portland International Film Festival
    Official Selection, Syria Film Festival, Toronto
    Official Selection, MESA FilmFest



    Reviews

    “Harrowing” — Variety

    “In just 37 minutes, director Skye Fitzgerald offers an intense experience from a unique point of view.” — ThruMag

    "50 Feet from Syria is a fine and inspiring film. A direct experience of the lives of people displaced—and often enough physically dismembered—by Middle Eastern war." — Anthropology Review Database

    "50 Feet from Syria approaches its subject matter with a stark and unadorned humanitarianism. The film is ideal for the classroom; it will certainly motivate others to help." — Al Jadid

       "Recommended. Offers a sobering if cautiously hopeful look at humanitarians working on the border of Syria." – Video Librarian

    "Makes a powerful case for human decency." – Booklist

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