Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting and some strong language

ALARM BLARES

- - Fire emergency.

Please remain calm and evacuate the building immediately.

ALARM CONTINUES

Fire emergency.

Please remain calm

and evacuate the building immediately.

ALARM CONTINUES

ALARM CONTINUES

Fire emergency.

Please remain calm and evacuate the building immediately.

ALARM CONTINUES

Fire emergency. Please remain calm...

ALARM STOPS

In exile, nothing is harder than the wait...

...a silence that brings out every memory.

All the ways I learned to survive through years of war

mean nothing here

because now the battle is internal.

I am Hasan, and this is Fadi.

We are film-makers from Syria,

best friends for 15 years.

The camera has always been with us.

Maybe it's how we made sense of the madness.

Maybe it's how we survived.

And now, as two allies in exile,

we ask ourselves,

how did we end up here as refugees,

so far from our home, Aleppo?

For years, we grew up with fear

under the shadow of the Assad regime.

If you spoke out, you disappeared.

But when the revolution began,

it felt like we were born again.

CROWD CHANTS

We found our voices.

So, as a group of young activists and journalists,

we established the Aleppo Media Center.

We wanted to tell the world

the brutal reality of what was going on.

That's where I met Fadi,

and we immediately shared a bond.

Ha!

CHATTER, LAUGHTER

We learned to film, to document, to tell the stories.

That's how our relationship with the camera began.

HE SPEAKS ARABIC

The beginning was not easy,

but we all shared one dream -

a new beginning for Syria,

a hope for freedom.

We have come to London for the premiere of our film about

the 2023 earthquake in Syria and Turkiye.

But it wasn't just a film.

It was Fadi's story.

We have been rebuilding our lives in Turkiye after fleeing Syria.

But when we got here, we discovered

we are banned from returning to Turkiye.

CHUCKLING

We are living in a hotel for asylum seekers,

waiting for our interview with the Home Office.

ELEVATOR DINGS

Claiming asylum has been our only option,

otherwise we would be sent back to Syria to face prison or death.

Life here is full of uncertainty.

The only certain thing is the waiting.

Months, years - no-one knows.

We've been used to living with fear,

but this is a new kind of terror -

a deeper kind of pain.

My wife and children are still in Turkiye,

and I have no idea when I will see them again.

SNORING

ALARM BLARES

- - Fire emergency.

Please remain calm and evacuate the building immediately.

ALARM CONTINUES

Fire emergency.

Please remain calm and evacuate the building immediately.

ALARM BLARES

Fire emergency.

Please remain calm and evacuate the building immediately.

ALARM CONTINUES

Fire emergency.

Please remain calm and evacuate the building immediately.

EXPLOSIONS

Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar.

EXPLOSION

SIREN WAILS

EXPLOSIONS, SHOUTING

SIREN WAILS

SHOUTING

SHOUTING

With every attack, we were there with our cameras.

It had become our daily routine.

SHOUTING

SIREN WAILS

INDISTINCT CHATTER

The camera started to detach us from feeling...

BABY CRIES

...and I have to admit,

we grew numb to what we witnessed.

We had become professionals at documenting death.

HELICOPTER WHIRS

BACKGROUND CHATTER

Psst!

HE SIGHS

SNORING

UNTRANSLATED SPEECH

CLIPPERS BUZZ

CHUCKLING

CHUCKLING

LAUGHTER

LAUGHTER

Huh?

Fadi.

I am so happy for Fadi,

but I still have no news about my case.

Have I been lost in the system?

I am very scared for my family's safety...

...Rama, my wife,

and my kids, Thaer and Kamelia.

I had to lie to them, just to keep their hope alive.

But, outside, the reality feels like it's growing darker.

PROTESTERS CHANT

Send them home!

Anti-refugee protests are breaking out across the UK.

Get them out! Get them out! Get them out! Get them out!

Leaving Aleppo was never a choice.

After months under siege,

Aleppo had fallen to Assad and Russian forces.

The world had abandoned us.

We were left to face the end, alone.

GUNSHOT

GUNSHOT, SHOUTING

SHOUTING

GUNSHOT

GUNSHOT, SHOUTING

CHILDREN CRY

SIREN WAILS

With the last shot I filmed,

it felt like I was losing my brief.

All I carried out of Aleppo was our footage...

...the memory of a city that must never be forgotten.

THEY CHUCKLE

CHUCKLING

CHUCKLING

Finally, I received my interview date...

...but Fadi is still waiting,

and I fear what that waiting might do to him.

HE SIGHS

After leaving Aleppo, we were based in Idlib -

an area filled with thousands of Syrian refugees.

Fadi's brother, Yaman, was part of our film team.

- Hello! - Hello, everybody!

He had the same humour,

the same spark as Fadi.

In the middle of this chaos,

that humour was our way to survive the madness.

LAUGHTER

Ow! LAUGHTER

But the regime had begun escalating the attacks,

now using chemical weapons.

SIREN WAILS

Fadi and Yaman had gone to document one of these attacks in the area.

EXPLOSION

COUGHING

YELLING, COUGHING

The second strike was meant to erase any survivors,

to silence the witnesses.

COUGHING

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Miraculously, they survived.

HEAVY EXHALATION

HE CHUCKLES

Salam, salam.

CHUCKLING

HE CLEARS THROAT

- A self... - A selfie.

Today, I received a letter from Home Office.

Uh, I still... I don't know.

Maybe it is, like, accept me, accept my asylum decision.

And maybe I will find,

"Your asylum has been refused."

So...

Uh, to be honest, I'm afraid, but I couldn't stop smiling.

Uh, because, like, there is some hope.

The Home Office told Fadi he needed another interview.

It meant more waiting - this time, alone.

Whenever I see him fall into that despair,

my mind goes back to the hardest moment of our lives.

That day, everything changed.

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Syria and Turkiye.

Fadi's entire family was trapped beneath the rubble.

We waited for days, praying for any sign of life...

...but no-one survived.

Not his brother, Yaman,

nor his wife and three children.

Not his father or mother,

not Yamen,

nor his cousin's family.

It was a loss so total,

nothing could ever restore it.

Filming those days, the darkest days of my friend's life,

left me with a guilt I still carry.

But in that devastation,

telling his story became a new purpose for Fadi -

to honour his family

and keep their memory alive.

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

WHISTLING, CHEERING

Allahu Akbar!

After five decades of brutal dictatorship,

the Assad regime was toppled by the Syrian people.

The impossible had finally happened.

DRUMS PLAY

15 years of suffering had dimmed our hope many times,

but we never stopped dreaming of this moment.

Mawtini by Murad Swaity

BACKGROUND CHATTER

FADI SIGHS

UNTRANSLATED SPEECH

UNTRANSLATED SPEECH

I'm nervous. Exhausted.

And I have no idea...

...about what's going on.

HE SIGHS

- - This is an ADT fire test. No action required.

Fadi decides to go back to Syria, despite the uncertainty.

We don't say goodbye.

There is no goodbyes between friends.

Life as a refugee is a life in limbo,

trying to make sense of what you have lost

and be brave enough to still have hope.

Maybe I'm the lucky one...

...or maybe Fadi is.

We don't know what the future holds.

We've always lived our lives in an emergency.

But wherever our roads lead,

our story will hold us together.