2017 | Denmark, Syria | NR | 104 min.
If you see nothing else this festival, you must see this heartbreaking but essential documentary about some of the bravest and most compassionate souls in the world. The White Helmets are the ones who stay behind, digging through the rubble in hopes of finding survivors after the bombs drop on Syria. They are just regular folks, not militants or rebel fighters, but civilians who push politics andreligion aside until only humanity remains. They risk their lives to save children, to pull bodies fromwreckage in order to give them burial, and worry about the safety of their own families, rejoicing in a few minutes of cease-fire so the kids can play a quick game of soccer. Horrifying and beautiful, harrowing and inspiring, this astonishing feat of filmmaking will entrench you in the visceral tragedy of this ongoing war and yet all at once reveal the sheer light of hope and grace that can exist inhumankind.