7 Days in Syria (2015) - full transcript

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(singing in foreign language)

(loud explosion)

(frantic screams)

(speaking in foreign language)

This is how war starts.

One day you're living your ordinary life,

you're planning to go to a party,

you're taking your children to school,

you're making a dentist appointment,



the next thing,

the telephones go out, the TV's go out,

there's armed men on the street,

there's road blocks,

your life as you know it

goes into suspended animations, it stops.

(dramatic music)

The Syrian civil war began in March 2011

and has grown to be the longest

and deadliest of the Arab Spring uprisings.

The first signs of rebellion were in the town of Daraa

when a group of kids were arrested for writing graffiti

calling for the fall of the Assad family,

a regime that's ruled Syria for over 50 years.



In the subsequent months protests erupted through out

the country but President Bashar al-Assad pushed back,

placing snipers and bombing dissenting neighborhoods.

Civilians and defected soldiers banded together

and became the Free Syrian Army or FSA.

Radical Islamist's later joined the fight

and now many factions, government, jihadist, rebels

fight each other for territory and control.

When I go back to Syria next week in fact,

what I see is incredibly heroic people,

some of them fighting for democracy

for things we take for granted every single day.

(dramatic music)

My role is to bring a voice to people who are voiceless.

A colleague of mine described it as to shine a light

in the darkest corners of the world.

(dramatic music)

(loud engine rumbling)

The thing about being in war zones,

especially active war zones,

is that the unexpected always happens

and you have to be very vigilante.

We're now approaching a check point

or rather a part of the border which is in rebel hands,

Free Syrian Army hands, so we can just pass it.

If you were going the other way through Syria

to get to Damascus you need a visa

which is almost impossible to get.

Here, hopefully, they're just gonna look at our

passports and let us go.

(singing in foreign language)

We found our driver and we met our friend

and we are now altogether

and we've made the decision that we're gonna drive

all the way to Aleppo which is about two hours.

I imagine we're gonna be quite shocked to see

how devastated Aleppo is.

Where you can see I just had to change his name.

(muffled talking)

Well we just stopped the car and both of these guys

picked up their Kalashnikov's or AK.

I never really understood why they picked it up

in a particular point but they just,

it makes them feel safer to have it

for the possible check points coming up.

In case the check points are jihadists

or in case they're--
Yeah.

So I saw a friend of mine a couple weeks ago

in New York who had been kidnapped twice,

once for a really extended period in Afghanistan

and once in Bosnia.

I think the worst feeling that everyone I've known

whose been kidnapped says

that they feel like people don't know that they're there

or where they are or that someone's actually helping you

and of course there's usually a huge thing,

people behind you trying to help you

but you don't know that.

Yeah, yeah.

I just--

There's so much uncertainty on both sides.

House.

(muffled talking)

Here I go.

(speaking foreign language)

Hope someone's home.

(speaking foreign language)

We're staying at the Shake's house

but we're here with his sons.

I'd like to take some notes about today

but I can't really see, but I'm gonna try.

Just about what Aleppo looks like

and about this family.

I saw this strange moment where people

didn't seem to believe that war was going to descend

and it was exactly the same in Bosnia

and nearly every other country I've seen where war comes,

people don't want to believe it's coming

so they don't leave, they don't leave before they can,

they don't get their money out.

They stay because you want to stay in your home.

To see like the destruction of this place.

A few cars on the street so I guess they do have some petrol

but it doesn't have a feeling at all of security or safety,

I mean, I think, I think we should head home now.

(loud explosion)

Yeah let's head home.

(loud horns honking)
(muffled talking)

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking foreign language)

We found a brilliant, brilliant fixer, driver, translator,

in fact we're so lucky because he was a teacher of english

so his english is perfect

and that's crucial cause it's very, very difficult to find

especially in these times.

We can't show his face and we can't give his name,

his radio name is Omar so we're gonna call him that.

Syria's always a very difficult place to work

and to build up trust with people

and because it was a regime for so long,

the first time I came here everyone said,

"No one will talk to you, no one will talk to you,

"Everyone's afraid and people are talking."

But they're putting themselves at risk by talking

so we have to be very sensitive with location

and what we're asking them to protect them

and their families.

I came here during the protests.

They would cut off the electricity

and they would burn tires so that the guys from

the Shabiha and stuff couldn't come in

but so I'm like, this is a very interesting neighborhood.

Were they in a car?

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

Ask her if we could follow her now to her house.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

I think the kid just got very upset

because he didn't really understand

why we were there filming, it was just time to go.

It's not good to stay in one place too long.

We're gonna walk around the neighborhood.

(loud horns honking)

(muffled talking)

(speaking in foreign language)

We were going with a man to see his house

which had been shelled

but these vegetable sellers stopped us

and said that there's a sniper,

he's shooting at anything that moves.

So we're standing back a bit

and Nicole's gone forward

and we're trying to get her back here.

(speaking foreign language)

(loud doors creaking)

(speaking in foreign language)

(fire crackling sporadically)

(speaking foreign language)

(muffled talking)

We're taking Waed back to the neighborhood

where there was a massacre 10 days ago.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking foreign language)

(speaking foreign language)

(shouting in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

There's a lot of shelling going on

so, and it's getting dark too.

It's not really the most secure time to be out.

It's the time that Assad's jet will go

and fly over and they shell anywhere,

we don't know so it's better for us to go and escape.

Now the ambulances are going so obviously

some people have been injured.

I think we should go to the hospital, yeah.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(car door bangs)

(speaking foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud baby crying)

(speaking in foreign language)

I am Dr. Esodarwish.

I work in Daraa Shiva Center

and another medical center in Aleppo.

Until now we don't have any

ambulance in Darshiva,

Bashar's army destroyed three ambulance cars to us.

When it's translated the patients.

Without the ambulance,

we sent the patient

in the car, any car.

(muffled talking)

(speaking in foreign language)

So a lot of the nurses who

(muffled talking)
coordinated to work

on the frontline in fields hospitals

were students from university as well.

So they hadn't finished their training yet,

they just went.

Some of them had and some of them hadn't.

Yeah, they were just volunteers and stuff like that.

The field hospitals triage's, how were they?

Were they pretty well organized when you were there?

Not really, no.

It was very kind of like half hazard.

When they would get a rush of casualties

it was very chaotic.

And even the hospital that was bombed.

I mean they tried to be organized,

they tried to take names,

they tried to figure out the operation,

if they had an operation room,

but generally the really serious cases,

they would try to stabilize the patient

and then they would send them to Al Abd

or somewhere else or to Turkey.

Bt some of those people died on the way

just because they could do anything on the road.

He's my personal body guard.

Hello, how are you?
Fine.

We brought you chicken.
Thanks.

(speaking in foreign language)

(car engine rumbles)

So we're on the top floor of the hospital

and it's basically where the doctors live.

And we're gonna go have some food with them now

and sit by the fire.

They've had a long day

'cause there was a lot of shelling today.

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(hearty laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(muffled talking)

With the gasoline line,

people have to stand and buy gasoline by the liter.

(speaking in foreign language)

There's a real lack of humanitarian assistance here.

Look at the garbage I mean it's just...

And it's one of the few conflicts zones where I've been to

where it's not all awash

with international humanitarian assistance.

I remember in Rwanda and Goma

there were small Irish charities

that were sent to pick up dead bodies.

Why aren't there people who are working with the garbage.

I mean there must be something more

that the international community can do.

At the moment we stopped at a graveyard

that's called Martyr's Graveyard

where apparently government soldiers are buried

alongside Free Syrian Army soldiers.

We're trying to see if we can go inside,

but our driver, fixer, Omar,

is going to check first if it's safe.

He wants to make sure that Islam

is whose been kidnapping journalists

aren't anywhere present.

These aren't bad guys?

So, he's just asked me to cover my head.

(loud coughing)

It's just very haunting to think these boots

were actually, he was wearing them earlier this morning

he got up, he had breakfast.

He ate some bread, he drank some tea,

and then put on his boots.

And now he's dead

so it just shows you the fleetingness of war

and how quickly people who are killed

leave this earth.

She's so young.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

I've heard there are many children buried here.

In a day, does he get many children that are killed?

(speaking in foreign language)

That's his son, his little boy who's four.

And I asked him if he had any problems

with this little boy coming and seeing death

over and over again everyday and he said,

"He has no worries for him."

So he's being exposed to this constantly

and he just seems like an average little boy.

He's eating a kabob and playing with his ball.

Being with his dad.

Life during war time.

(singing in foreign language)

(loud rhythmic pounding)

(singing in foreign language)

Thanks, thanks.

Two people have gone missing,

we don't know who or where.

Okay, alright, well we're in Aleppo city,

we're okay, and I'll check in with you tomorrow morning

with
(muffled talking)

it's the only means of communication, okay.

Okay, bye, bye, bye.

Well he got my text, so that's good.

He got your text.
Okay.

Yeah, it just went through,

I think when we were walking around outside.

By the way, did you see Ricardo's Facebook message?

No.
He was talking

about two journalists that have gone missing.

They were from...

I spoke to somebody who did have information.

It was NBC, two people from NBC,

but I couldn't establish who they were

or what nationality.

Apparently they went missing in the same area

that John and James went missing.

(muffled talking)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud motor running)

(metallic rhythmic clicking)

The flour and the salt and the yeast is provided

by the Free Syrian Army

as a way of keeping the population from starving.

This man is kind of seen as a hero of Aleppo

because he's feeding five or six neighborhoods.

(speaking in foreign language)

That's our story really,

we're looking for the heroes of Aleppo

and we kind of...

The heroes of Aleppo aren't the fighters,

it's the people who are holding this city together.

People who are feeding it

and providing medical supplies

and trying to build up schools again.

I mean those are the real heroes.

The fighters of course are defending it

but it's people who are the backbone of this.

Keeping this society together.

(speaking in foreign language)

(muffled talking)

(speaking in foreign language)

Can you like put the camera in here?

People are scared?

Yeah, they're all looking out.

No, I don't like crowds, I really don't.

It was just Dan Eldon got ripped apart by a bomb

in Mogadishu, he was 22.

He was a wonderful young guy.

(loud rhythmic knocking)

What do you want?
Oh no.

What the fuck do you want?

So this is what I hate.

I wish he'd get back here now, I want to go.

(loud sporadic knocking)

Yeah, I think we should

just get out very quickly.

No, I don't think we should get out.

I think we should leave.

You do, I don't think

we should get out of the car.

(loud rhythmic knocking)

Omar, come on, let's go.

Omar, let's go, lets go.

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud car honking)

(shouting in foreign language)

Omar, let's go, let's go.

Our car got surrounded by angry women

so it wasn't very pleasant.

We were okay and we got out

and our driver got quite upset.

But what we were worried about is everyone's armed here

so anyone could have pulled a pistol.

(loud sporadic car honking)

The woman who really inspired me to do this work,

said to me, "If you are able to do this,

"Then you have something of an obligation."

And I do feel responsible,

I do feel that there are people

who's stories need to be told,

who are unable to tell them themselves.

Although, what I would risk before I had my son,

and what I would risk now is very different.

It's not the sniping

and it's not the shelling that scares me

because quite frankly that is in the hands of the gods.

It's getting kidnapped by some radical group.

(muffled talking)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

Quickly, man.
The other one.

One, two, three.

(muffled talking)

They're using what they had,

like these simple materials.

Right, to war, it's a war,

so they are trying to do their best.

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

This is bomb, handmade bomb here,

made in the city, no needs for bombs from America

or anywhere, we make our own.

Handmade, handmade, it's not made by military,

but it works, look.

Pipe, made very good.

All it need, lighter and throw.

You want this one.

Everyone here know me, Mowya.

I need the nickname for the intelligence

can't catch my family.

I have a shop at the end of this street.

It's maybe 500 meters there

but I can't reach it now

and I don't know what's happened to it.

I don't wear military clothes like them.

I don't like military at all.

I'm civilian, I'm a leader of Aleppo Revolution Brigade.

See all these stones,

maybe the newest one of it

is oldest than American.

You see these stones.

I'm sure that's oldest then American.

There was no Columbus yet when we build this.

Look, these humans make this

with their own hands,

no drills, no electricity, they make it.

And look.

(loud cat meowing)

(speaking in foreign language)

Maybe after the Americans see that,

found there is a cat here in Syrian,

I hope they will help the cat.

Maybe when they see there is a cat in Syria,

so let's go help Syria.

They don't care about the woman,

they care about the cat.

We feel that.

I know it's not real,

but this close to be real.

(speaking in foreign language)

We don't know how many people live there ane there

and then they have dream they have their lives.

They're laughing sometimes,

they're crying sometimes.

All that ends now, all that ends.

This is the center of the city.

You know what it means, center of the city.

Can you imagine Wall Street like that.

That's what's happening.

This is the heart of the city and it stopped now.

It's very bad when your heart stop.

This is the
(muffled talking)

shooting bullets, now

Using 23 millimeter gun.

I can't see it but this is the sound.

Now we be professional,

we hear the sound,

at the time we hear the sound,

we don't know it's maybe some fireworks

or it's the gun shooting, we don't know.

But now we can hear the sound,

we can say this flash and go,

this it native,

this is 23 millimeter, this is 12.7, we know it.

Sometimes we can know the kind of bullet,

it's Russian, it's made in Syria, from the sound.

This is good thing, let's do it,

now all the people here,

professionals of the gun, that's good.

Can't you see, that is good?

The life must go on.

The people have to live.

They are just children,

they need to watch cartoons.

There is no school now for them.

And maybe, I don't know,

but maybe one of them loose a father or brother,

but their life must go.

It's not stopped here and it will never stop

until we got what we owe.

We want our lives back and we will get it.

(speaking in foreign language)

(muffled talking)

Every school is shelled.

I can't find one single school that is not shelled.

Children are scared of schools.

It's part of the evolution race to teach English.

Although sometimes I think like it's just nightmare,

all this that I'm going through right now.

I mean, when I wake up the day, early, at 5:00AM

and the bus would come at 6:00AM

and I would go to my class at 7:00AM,

I'm gonna start teaching English with my kids.

I mean my students are my kids.

Sometimes I think if I go to sleep and wake up

and everything will be fine,

I'll go back to school, I'll teach.

Say yes to the leader of the party

and the people the doctor of Bashar al-Assad.

I mean, can you imagine little kids seeing this daily

on the wall of their school.

They are already controlling you, even like a kid.

And they have no choice because you are just a kid.

You do what you're told and that's what we were told.

We have a good people here, very good people.

They used to stay with this regime, this criminal.

We try our best.

No guarantees but we try.

No one can be sure what the future have, we hope the best.

If the government come by voting, no problem.

What the people want, I will.

I like the government, I don't like it,

but it must be democracy.

Not from father to son.

Bashar.
(loud car honking)

(speaking in foreign language)

They're teaching people

maybe from their first class

until they died

how to make their leader Bashar al-Assad.

And sometimes thinking he is like God,

maybe biggest then the God.

He's a lord for them and that's for real, no joking.

They can't imagine there is Syria without Bashar

and without the Assad Regime.

That's kind of fantasy, they thought that.

(speaking in foreign language)

When you take freedom,

you must live it, you must kill anyone to get it.

We're not allowed to talk about politics, really,

even with our families.

I can't open a conversation about politics

with my mother or father 'cause we're just so much care

that somebody might overhear us

and the next day somebody might knock on our door

and arrest the whole family

just for talking about politics.

You must keep
(muffled talking)

you keep it for yourself.

It's better than the Regime catch you.

I will guarantee that for you.

You must keep
(muffled talking)

I have experience with that.

'Cause I say freedom.

It's a very big
(muffled talking)

I've got my friend, she has been arrested for so long.

And nobody knew where is she

and what happened to her,

but last week we received that she's dead

'cause she was tortured, raped, it makes me sick.

I'd rather die.

I'd rather die then let them have me for five minutes.

We started
(muffled talking)

on the wall that way.

That's the street of death

because when the fight started going,

the soldiers and the FSA...

Like, you can't count how many shells

are literally flying above your head in one minute.

Nobody can walk five steps on that street.

And now it's under the FSA's control, so it's really good.

(loud rhythmic drumming)

(loud melodic singing)

(loud chanting in foreign language)

This is the Free Army, one of our secrets here.

This is how we can win.

It's a soup with bread, that's it.

(speaking in foreign language)

It's good, I like it.

(speaking in foreign language)

It's not better than KFC, I think.

But it's good.

It's working now and this time it's perfect.

These men here, they're writing the future here in Syria

with their own hands and own guns like that.

Made of garbage from the US military or other militaries.

But here, they're writing the future with.

(speaking in foreign language)

No, 'cause he's the Commander here.

So he know every point what's need

from arms, from shells, from men,

so the fighters come here

and he send them to the point, every patient.

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud explosion)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud explosion)

(speaking in foreign language)

Come, stay there, stay there, stay there.

(speaking in foreign language)

Lay down on ground.

Let's go.
There's an airplane, hurry.

(speaking in foreign language)

Come, come.

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud rapid gunfire)

(muffled talking)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

I think it's the same as carrying any weapon.

If you're carrying your cam

and letting the whole world seeing what's going on

is the same as fighting at the frontline.

We had with his father a lot of issues back in the 80's

like a real massacres happened

but nobody knew what's going on,

even inside Syria.

Still you can't talk to people

that they didn't know what his father has done to us.

So that's because nobody made a video

or took a picture or something, nobody knew.

So we're making sure that this mistake doesn't happen again.

(electronic camera clicking)

(muffled talking)

(electronic camera clicking)

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud shouting)
This is

(speaking in foreign language)

(loud gunfire)

And right in this spot, I lost my friend.

We lost a lot of guys, 12, on that day.

And just one of the guys was bleeding

in the middle of the street

and nobody could help him because of the bullets

and the security were firing at protestors.

So he was the only guy who had the guts to go

and help this guy.

And he ran in the middle of the street, uncovered,

to help this guy.

And suddenly other guys got inspired

and wanted to help him.

They dragged the body into this corner

and once he got into this corner,

one bullet killed him,

right through his chest.

Just because he helped another guy.

The funny thing that our friend was making a video of it

in that corner and he didn't know that it was,

Ehsan was dying.

Because he had his mask on for the first time.

When they tried to get him to a field hospital,

they removed the mask and it was him

and he just dropped the camera and shouted his name.

He was like my brother, he's just 19.

Too bad that they had to hold the responsibility as men

because they're only teenagers.

Not gonna forget this point.

And I'm going to continue to fight as they did.

I'm not gonna give up, even if I had to die,

I'm gonna do this.

I have the power to do this, he gave me this power.

I'm gonna go forward.

(loud shouting in foreign language)

(loud shouting in foreign language)

It's not pretty to see people wasted by war

and while I'm grateful I can write about it

and describe it, you often feel like a vulture.

That you're there witnessing peoples horrible pain

and atrocities and you're just standing there

and then of course you're gonna go home.

You might stay there a month or two months,

or six months, or even a year,

but eventually you're gonna get on your aid flight

and you're gonna go back to your life.

But the people you're writing about are stuck there forever.

This is probably the biggest moral dilemma

that most journalists have

is that you enter peoples lives,

you take something very vital,

you're writing their story and then you go.

And there's a tremendous sense of guilt

about what you leave behind.

(somber music)

If no one is there to tell the story

of what's happening then there's just going to be silence

and the pages of history aren't going to be written.

Headed now for the Syrian Turkish border,

we'll pass from Syria to Turkey.

(solemn music)

I think it's really silly for people to think

that a war will never reach them

because it happens very quickly.

There's just a moment when people are living their lives

and then there's a moment when they're suddenly thrust

into a situation that's completely unthinkable.

(solemn music)

In a sense no one is safe.

We all need to be aware of the limitations of life

the fragility of life.

And in some places it's just much more fragile.

(solemn music)

(slow solemn music)