Filmed from 2011 until 2016, For Sama begins with Al Kateab as a student at the University of Aleppo and follows her journey as she joins the uprising against the regime, falls in love, gets married and eventually gives birth to her daughter, Sama.
In 2016, Waad Al Kateab and her husband Hamza made the difficult decision to remain in Aleppo despite the looming approach of Syrian forces.
Currently under the working title of Children on the Frontline: The Escape the film revisits a middle-class family from northern Syria whose lives have been destroyed by the ongoing civil war.
"The whole tragic story of the civil war from the initial uprising against the Syrian regime, the emergence of Islamic State and the ensuing refugee crisis is captured through the story of four young children and their parents," said Executive Producer Chris Shaw. "It's a deeply personal account of life turned upside down by the Syrian conflict"
When documentary filmmaker Sean McAllister started his latest project, A Syrian Love Story, he had little idea of the journey he would end up on.
What began as a film following a family as they waited for their mother to be released from prison evolved to demonstrate how one family could be affected by the turmoil in Syria.
The story began in 2010, when McAllister met Amer, a Palestinian living in Syria, who was looking after his three sons alone while his wife, Raghda, was incarcerated for writing a book criticising the Assad regime.
