Waad Al-Kateab fled to safety in Turkey in 2016. She is now a resident of the UK. (Al-Khateab was actually pregnant with Sama's sister, Taima, when she became a refugee from her native Syria.)
Waad Al-Kateab started making the film at the age of 21. She carried on filming over the next five years, capturing over 500 hours of footage.
Waad Al-Kateab was motivated to make the film because Syrian broadcasting was making no mention of the atrocities that were going on in Aleppo.
The word "Sama," for whom the film is named, means "Sky" in Arabic.
The filming covers five years, between the start of protests against the government of Syria in 2012, and 2017.