‘Is this just a long, beautiful dream?’: Syrian filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab on her country’s future

After 14 years of war, Syria has entered a new and uncertain chapter. The country is devastated – 90 per cent of Syrians live in poverty.

Despite the challenges up to one million people living in camps and displacement sites across the country’s northwest intend to return home within the next year.

As those Syrians prepare to return home, they are beginning the difficult process of rebuilding and confronting the past.

Ms. Al-Kateab, the filmmaker behind the award-winning documentary, For Sama, captured life under siege in Aleppo before fleeing the country in 2016.

Since then, she has remained a powerful advocate for the Syrian people, co-founding Action For Sama, a campaign, advocating for human rights, dignity, and accountability for all.

In this interview with UN News, as Syria stands at a crossroads, she shares her determination to make sure justice is not forgotten in the country’s next chapter.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

UN News: Waad, how have you been processing the past few months?

Waad Al-Kateab: I think it’s really confusing. We are over the moon, but at the same time, it was something that seemed so far away.

I thought the ending of my story was dying in exile, not being able to go back, never being able to see this beautiful day. And it just happened out of the blue, without any indication.

We were not ready, but that does not matter. It happened, and we are really happy.

At the same time, the pain and grief we had to go through for the last 14 years – and for so many of us, even 50 years, when Hafez al-Assad was president – it was just too much to handle.

I’m still thinking, is this real? Am I just having a long, beautiful dream?

UN News: Have you been in contact with people on the ground in Syria? What have they been telling you?

Waad Al-Kateab: Until now, because of my refugee status, I was not able to go back. But I’m working on this, and hopefully, at any second I will get citizenship in the UK, so I will be able to move freely.

My parents went back in January, and some of our friends too. I was also able to communicate with my family who were in Syria the whole time, whereas before, I couldn’t even call or send a message because I was worried of what the regime could do to them.

It’s not easy – the country is tired, the economy is very bad, there’s no electricity, no water but what everyone has in common is the feeling that it’s definitely a new beginning.

We’re afraid, but we’re not really scared. We can do anything we want.

UN News: When you still lived in Aleppo, you spent years capturing both the resilience of people and the devastation around them. What moments have stayed with you from that time?

Waad Al-Kateab: To be honest, the situation I couldn’t accept was when we were displaced out of Aleppo.

I understood early on that we were fighting against a dictatorship that would stop at nothing. I was okay with that. I knew the risk I was taking, the risk my husband Hamza was taking, even our own daughter.

We were fighting in our own way – me, with my camera, my husband, with his work in the hospital.

Then came the siege – six months with no medication, no food, no basic services. And then, forced displacement. That, for me, was the most cruel thing: throw us out from our own country where we wanted to be.

It was the moment which really broke me. Saying goodbye to everything – my home there, the hospital, the people we knew.

For the past few years, I’ve forced myself not to picture going back because it didn’t seem possible. But now, it is.

So many people I know went back. They send me pictures from the neighbourhood, the university: “See, it’s there. We are back.”

And I can’t wait to be there myself.

UN News: You talk about your excitement, your family’s excitement, and this chapter closing. Do you think the hardest part of the work has been done now?

Waad Al-Kateab: Definitely. The hardest work has been done.

Now, with this new chapter, there’s a lot to do, and it’s difficult in a very different way. But the shelling, the bombings – that’s over.

There are so many important issues – transitional justice, detainees, the disappeared. There are very difficult conversations to have about revenge; and the economy – it has more than crashed.

There are so many authorities, agendas and international players in a country starting from scratch. But now, we are in charge. It’s very heavy to carry but we’re here and we’re going to do it.

I’m very hopeful and excited.

UN News: You mention transitional justice, what does real accountability look like to you now?

Waad Al-Kateab: Bashar Al-Assad was responsible, but there are many others – those who ordered killings, those who carried them out, those who helped him. And I’m not just talking about individuals, but also foreign governments and armies.

There is no way to have a future in Syria if we don’t face what happened. For everyone responsible, it must start with an apology and end with accountability.

Right now, militias and former regime soldiers still have weapons, trying to hide or defend themselves. This is very serious, and all weapons should be handed to the new government.

For victims like us, now it’s about asking: what do we want? What can happen? How do we return to normal life? There is a lot to be done.

UN News: You’ve lived in the UK for almost a decade now. You said you’d like to return. Would that be long-term?

Waad Al-Kateab: To be honest, we never imagined this moment would happen, so we built a life away from Syria.

Even in our conversations with our daughters, I wanted them to love Syria and understand what happened but also, I wanted to protect them.

Now, I see they picked up way more than we realised, they picked up what we felt. For them, Syria was a place where people die.

They don’t understand and they ask: “What if Assad is still hiding there? What if he’s waiting for us to go and then he kills us?”

The discussion of going back has triggered many difficult things for them.

For me and Hamza, we don’t have to think about it, we want to go back of course. So, we agreed on one visit and when we come back, we’ll talk – what we want, what they want. They definitely have an equal say.

Whatever decision we take, one way or another, we will be back.

UN News: With your advocacy, what role do you see yourself having in the rebuilding of Syria?

Waad Al-Kateab:  We’ve done so much around the world – working with communities who know Syria well and others who know nothing about it.

For us, the biggest achievement has always been awareness and preserving the narrative of what happened. Now, more than ever, that’s a priority on the ground in Syria.

For me, it’s not just about For Sama as a film, but about everything I’ve learned as a filmmaker – years of telling my own story and others’. Now, I want to bring it back to Syria through screenings and conversations, not just as a film event, but as a space to hear from people.

This is part of transitional justice, especially acknowledgment – helping local communities talk to each other, understand each other’s experiences and start healing.

UN News: What would be your message to the international community today?

Waad Al-Kateab: Syria is not like any other conflict. People tried to compare it to Iraq or Afghanistan, but this is different. Even how the regime fell and what comes next is unknown.

As the U.S. slashes foreign aid, Syrian civil society is at risk of collapse. Organizations that fought for justice and protected civilians for over a decade are now struggling. The international community must step up.

A successful transition must be Syrian-led, free from armed groups or foreign influence.

The world has a responsibility to support this in a way that reflects Syrians’ aspirations for peace, justice and accountability.