''The White Helmets'' is a 2016 British short

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

. The film follows the daily operations of a group of volunteer rescue workers of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets. The film was directed by

Orlando von Einsiedel Orlando von EinsiedelPeople of Today 2017 / Lucy Hume (born in August 1980) is a British film director. He directs mostly documentary films that investigate global social issues, and has filmed in various places around the world, including Africa ...

and produced by

Joanna Natasegara Joanna Natasegara is a British film director and producer. She produced '' Virunga'' (2014) and '' The White Helmets'' (2016), for which she received nominations for Academy Award in the categories of Best Documentary Feature and Best Documen ...

. It won the Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 89th Academy Awards.

Synopsis

''The White Helmets'' follows three Syria Civil Defence volunteers as they work in

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and across Syria. The film also follows the three men, who are part of the same unit, as they train in Turkey.

Cast

*Khalid Farah *Mohammed Farah *Abu Omar *Raed Saleh

Production

Von Einsiedel said he first became aware of the Syrian Defense Force when he and producer Joanna Natasegara were shown grainy

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

footage of an infant being dug out from beneath rubble in the aftermath of a bombing. After seeing the footage, Von Einsiedel reached out to the

Mayday Rescue Foundation The Mayday Rescue Foundation was a not-for-profit foundation registered in the Netherlands specialised in training, equipping, and assisting volunteer emergency first responders in areas of conflict, instability, and natural disaster, primarily Sy ...

, which provides support to the White Helmets, to ask to join volunteers as they trained in Turkey. Shortly thereafter, Von Einsiedel commissioned Khaleed Khateeb, a volunteer for the Syrian Civil Defense who had been informally documenting rescue missions since 2013, to be the film's videographer. The film is available in 21 languages and 190 countries. "Crashing Down", an unreleased

Plastic Beach ''Plastic Beach'' is the third studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was released on 3 March 2010 by Parlophone internationally and by Virgin Records in the United States. Conceived from an unfinished project called ''Carousel'', th ...

track by

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guit ...

featuring the

Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music The Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music was a Syrian orchestra dedicated to the performance of classical Arabic music, as well as experimental work based on traditional music from the Middle East. The orchestra played regular concerts in the ...

, is played during the credits.

Reception

''White Helmets'' won Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the Academy Awards in 2017, but the film's cinematographer, Khaled Khateeb, was unable to attend the awards ceremony due to being denied entry into the United States. In December 2016 it was announced that

George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards, one for his acting and the ot ...

was in the early stages of developing a feature-length film based on the documentary. In 2017, the film received the Cinema for Peace Most Valuable Documentary of the Year Award. ''The White Helmets'' has an approval rating of 100% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 8.50/10.

References

External links

* * 2016 films 2016 short documentary films Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners British short documentary films Netflix original documentary films Documentary films about the Syrian civil war Films set in Aleppo 2010s English-language films 2010s British films {{short-documentary-film-stub