The White Helmets

"To save a life is to save all of humanity."

2016 0h 40m AR

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 220

DocumentaryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.

“To save a life is to save all of humanity.”

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Cast

Khalid Farah
Himself
Mohammed Farah
Himself
Abu Omar
Himself
Raed Saleh
Himself

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
Languages: Arabic, English
Countries: United Kingdom

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Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Tight 40-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 10 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Arabic, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, shot by Franklin Dow. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Patrick Jonsson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Masahiro Hirakubo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Khalid Farah and Mohammed Farah and Abu Omar carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Orlando von Einsiedel directs. Franklin Dow behind the camera. Patrick Jonsson scores. Masahiro Hirakubo cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in Arabic, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Tight 40-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
2Released 10 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Arabic, English.
4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
5Directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, shot by Franklin Dow. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Patrick Jonsson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Masahiro Hirakubo shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Khalid Farah and Mohammed Farah and Abu Omar carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "To save a life is to save all of humanity.".
10IMDB entry: tt6073176 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Franklin Dow
Original score: Patrick Jonsson
Editing: Masahiro Hirakubo
Runtime: 40 min · 0h 40m
Status: Released
Original language: AR
IMDB: The White Helmets (2016)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Orlando von Einsiedel

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-09-25
★ 7/10
You know that Churchillian quote about "never in the field of human conflict..."? Well I'm not so sure it couldn't be applied to these folks too. The "White Helmets" are a group of courageous volunteers who risk life and limb to try to assist those affected by the increasingly indiscriminate warfare going on in their Syrian homeland. Over the next half hour, or so, what we get is actually much more personal that I was expecting. Certainly, there is plenty of actuality of the effects of the war and there is some especially shot footage that illustrates quite clearly just how randomly this campaign of attrition against it's own people was being carried out: bombs being chucked out of helicopters as if they were wedding confetti and landing where they may, but this film is more essentially about the people who are out there trying to help. To an extent, they are equipped and there still appears to be just enough of a clinical infrastructure for their efforts to result in the saving of lives, but it's really the stoic and defiant attitudes of these people that Orlando Von Einsiedel brings to the fore. Do these rescuers have their own more nefarious and/or zealous agenda? Well possibly, but this doesn't provide us with any evidence of that, indeed many of the contributions show us people whose own families are in the firing line; whose children associate just about every sound they hear with bombs, bullets or flying masonry and yet they persist into danger zones with little more protection that their hats an each other. There's no narration either, which I think helps us to watch, listen and then to reach our own conclusions about what we think is going on in a land where a toxic regime has little concern for it's own citizenry and where there are doubtless a selection of would-be pupper-masters manipulating from the wings. It's a testament to what can be achieved by ordinary men and women in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, some of the camerawork takes us well outside our own comfort zones and it's well worth a watch.

Production companies