Alumnus wins Oscar for story of Syrian heroes

01 Mar 2017

Hollywood gives standing ovation as Orlando von Einsiedel accepts Academy Award

Orlando von Einsiedel, one of our former Anthropology students, has won an Oscar for his documentary The White Helmets, which follows the Syrian Civil Defence forces rescuing those caught in the crossfire of the country’s civil war.

The win follows a nomination for Virunga in 2015, about the conflicts between conservationists, militiamen, poachers and oil companies in a Congolese national park, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

In the five years since the conflict began, more than 250,000 Syrians have died – but thanks to the White Helmets, over 60,000 lives have been saved.

Orlando first heard of them when he saw footage of them pulling a baby from the collapsed building after a bombing, and was further moved when he discovered that they were regular citizens including blacksmiths, accountants, teachers and students.

He joined a training camp for their volunteers in Turkey and met Khaleed Khateeb, a 21-year-old student who had been filming rescue missions and posting them on YouTube since he joined the White Helmets in 2013.

Orlando gave him training and better camera equipment, and told him to keep on filming, which he did for the next twelve months. The results have been turned into a moving 41-minute documentary for Netflix, which caught the attention of the Oscar judges.

Orlando said, “their story reignited my faith in humanity.”

Accepting the Academy Award, he urged the audience to get out of their seats and call for an end to Syria's six-year civil war , which led to a standing ovation.

He also read a statement from White Helmets founder Raed al-Saleh in which he thanked the academy and said the group had saved tens of thousands of lives since it was formed in 2014.

"We are so grateful that this film has highlighted our work to the world. Our organisation is guided by a verse from the Quran: To save one life is to save all of humanity," Saleh's statement said.

"We have saved more than 82,000 Syrian lives. I invite anyone here who hears me to work on the side of life to stop the bloodshed in Syria and around the world."

The University’s Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology has been widely recognised as the world’s leading centre since its creation in 1987. Its alumni include Gavin Searle and Andrew Palmer, who won BAFTAs in 2011 for BBC series ‘Welcome to Lagos’.

“The social impact of Orlando’s films is important,” said Andrew Irving, the centre’s director.

“Virunga helped bring about important environmental protections in one of the world’s most endangered habitats, while The White Helmets, helps us understand the lives of ordinary citizens living under extraordinary circumstances. This is especially significant, given how perceptions of Syrian refugees and migration are currently shaping the direction of European and American policy and politics."

"Orlando is a real inspiration to our current students in terms of what they can go on to achieve. A mark of his commitment to future film-makers is that alongside his worldwide work, he still finds time to return to Manchester to run workshops on the MA Visual Anthropology course which are hugely appreciated by students."