For Sama 2019

Syrian film-maker Waad al-kateab documented her life from being an 18-year-old student in Damascus to raising a baby in the middle of the civil war.

Clare said: “This is all about just what people will put themselves through to tell the story, and you can tell she was compelled to do it because of the absolute injustice of what was going on around her and she needed her story to be told.

“It’s about this very intimate family life when she falls in love with her friend, they marry and they have this child together, and the fact that she stays and keeps documenting what’s going on around her until it gets to the point where she has to go.

“And there’s a lot of laughter in the film, and all of us can recognise a little bit of facing a really difficult time, how the people you are surrounded by are so important to you.

“On an emotional level I came very close to almost walking out of the cinema, because the tension was too much but if this woman had put herself in this position to make this documentary, I have to give it my time.”