It's not a competition but I much preferred **For Sama** to this one. There were some good parts but they were mostly in between long stretches of footage of medical staff whining or saying they're scared of the warplanes (WE KNOW!).

It was interesting to me how two documentaries about virtually the same thing come out this differently. Documentaries are not just footage of events, they have to provide a narrative and be compelling, neither of which applies to **The Cave**.

With all the madness going on in the world, it's easy to forget that the civil war in Syria is also still going on. This documentary from 2019 sheds light on the situation in an underground clinic in the besieged city of Eastern Ghouta. And the film is very effective in depicting the suffering, pain, stress, and general toll on the local staff. It is refreshing that it is mainly a female perspective that is conveyed. What I did miss, however, was a common thread that gave the whole thing a framework. A few more details about the events would also have been appreciated. As it is, the viewer is left pretty much alone with all the suffering. Whether this is the most effective way to make a documentary like this, I don't know. In my opinion, "The Cave" clearly loses out in comparison to the documentary "For Sama", which was released in the same year.