The White Helmets
The White Helmets symbolize hope for many civilians and also represent extreme bravery. They risk their own lives to save others and show incredible courage in rescuing people after explosions. As volunteers for The White Helmets, they are also targeted more, which means that they symbolize a threat to the regime.
"The miracle baby"
On one rescue mission, the volunteers had traveled to a place in Aleppo where two barrel bombs had been set off. After hearing a baby crying, they spent hours searching through the rubble, when they finally found the baby. They called him "the miracle baby," discovering that he was only two weeks old. Mohammad says: "I don't know how it came to my mind, but I imagined that this was my son." To the volunteers, the baby represents why they do what they do, and motivated them to save more lives. From him, the group learned "patience, persistence, hard work. And never to lose hope."
Planes
In Aleppo, planes can be heard overhead, and represent a source of danger as they could be carrying bombs. Before bomb explosions in the documentary, we often hear the sounds of planes traveling nearby, which alerts The White Helmets and prepares them for action. Later, they cross the Syrian border and find that everything is different. There is "no war here, no devastation, no destruction." We then see a normal plane flying overhead, which represents how different this atmosphere is from Aleppo. The planes are no longer a sign of danger and destruction. Mohammed remarks how if the plane was in Syria "it would have been dropping cluster bombs from that height."
Children
In this documentary, children symbolize innocence. They have been caught up in a war they had no part in, and are affected heavily by the bombings. Many of the volunteers see the children they rescue as being the same as their own children: "What's the difference between my son and another person's son? Aren't they all innocent? What's their sin, whoever it is?"
Mohammed talks about his son who is almost two years old but already knows about military planes. He says that when there's an airstrike, his son knows that there is a bomb. As such, we see that the children in Syria know way more than they should at their age due to the political events surrounding them.
Children also symbolize the future and a sense of hope and optimism that things will get better. Khalid says that "I have a lot of hopes for my own daughter," but also says that when he looks at her he feels sad, as he is reminded of all the children who didn't survive. As such, children are a complex symbol in this documentary.
