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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
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10
00 02 10
00 09 |
Night vision camera |
Comm Midnight
on the border between Syria and Jordan. We
are witnessing a mass exodus that
doesn’t make the headlines. |
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Fatema We are packing to go back to Syria. I have no
reason to stay here. |
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10
00 22 |
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Comm Every
week, hundreds leave the comparative safety of Jordanian refugee camps to
return home, to the war zone that is Syria. |
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Fatema Regardless of
the destruction, regardless of the war. I call all the people in the camps,
to go back to Syria. Syria is waiting for you. |
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10
00 44 |
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Comm As millions of Syrians fled, xenophobia erupted
in Europe and racial attacks rocketed. People have forgotten that the Syrians
never wanted to leave in the first place. |
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Main Title Going
home to War |
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10
01 11 10
01 24 |
Zaatari Camp |
Comm Five
miles from the Syrian border Zaatari camp is refuge for over 80,000 Syrians. That makes it the fifth largest city in
Jordan. It
sprawls across miles of flat desert and suffers searing heat and sandstorms.
It was never intended as a permanent settlement but with the war still
raging, it’s becoming a life sentence. |
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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
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10
01 40 |
Fatema and her son walking in camp |
Fatema
Hussein Abdulla fled here three years ago, with her eight children. |
|
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Fatema IV |
Fatema I
used to live in Syria. I was comfortable there and happy. Then there was the
‘Arab spring’ and demonstrations. When the revolution started, we came to
Zaatari camp. |
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10
02 02 10
02 15 10
02 25 |
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Comm People
here have made the best of a bad situation. Over 3,000 shops have sprung up,
selling small luxuries and make and mend essentials. United
Nations charities have donated 100 million loaves of bread and everyone
receives a meagre allowance for subsistence. But it’s a far cry from the
comfortable lives these people enjoyed before the war. |
|
|
Fatema preparing coffee |
Fatema Wow,
the electricity is back on. Can you believe it? Check the refrigerator.
Mohammad, the electricity is on. Electricity, electricity! |
|
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Fatema IV |
Fatema They
told us they would switch it on during Ramadan. They switched it on for the
first two days from 7pm to 5am, until the dawn prayers, just those first two
days. Then they cut it off again. |
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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
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|
Fatema prepares coffee & talks |
The
misery we feel in the baking summer days and the sandstorms that engulf the
whole camp, it all makes me wonder if God is angry with us. |
|
10
03 12 |
Cutaways, the family sitting around |
Comm Fatema’s
husband is a grocer. He’s back in Syria minding the shop. She’s decided to
take the children home, even though she’s haunted by painful memories of war.
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Fatema What
really frightened us were the raids, not the barrel bombs, not the Scuds, not
the jet fighters. We were terrified of the raids, because they did such
terrible things. |
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10
03 41 |
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Comm Fatema
recalls the atrocities committed by the Syrian army and Hezbollah her
neighbourhood |
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Fatema When
they came into our houses, they were full of grudge and violence. I witnessed
one time they were searching for a suspect and they couldn’t find him. So
they grabbed his seven-year-old son, ‘Where’s your dad?’ He
didn’t know. They put a gun in his mouth and killed him |
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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
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10
04 15 |
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Comm These
stories clearly trouble 12-year-old Brahim, but he misses his father terribly. |
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Interview Brahim. Very emotional |
Brahim It would be safer to stay here, but my country is there…and my family.
My father is there. How could I even think of spending my life here? I want
to be back in Syria with my father and my brothers. It’s safer here than
there, but if we all die there at least we’ll be together. I won’t die alone. |
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Packing their belongings |
Fatema We’re packing our bags for Syria. |
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Brahim lifts the luggage |
Off
you go. |
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Fatema and the girls step out |
I’m
happy that we’re on our way to Syria, it’s our home |
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10
05 31 |
|
Comm Fatema’s
one regret is that her eldest son Mohammad, won’t come with them. He thinks
their country has been destroyed and that his young family must grow up here
in Jordan. |
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Fatema Now we’ll go and get loaded onto a bus. That’ll take us to the Syrian
border. My husband will be there. |
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10
06 03 |
|
Across
the camp, other families are confronted with the same reality. Asmaa Ibrahim
feels her family has been torn apart. |
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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
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|
Asmaa Ibrahim Interview |
Asmaa I fled
Syria because of the raids and bombing and shelling. The boys were frightened
so I brought them here. I brought two daughters as well, but they’re married
now. I have another unmarried daughter in Syria. She’s a third year
University student, she stayed behind. Our dream
is to return home and live in peace. But look at us now, some of us here,
some in Syria, we’re all over the place. We’re the same as the Palestinians. |
|
10 06 59 |
Luggage stacked and ready |
Comm Their
belongings are already packed. Asmaa has learned that truckloads are leaving
tonight. She and her children will be on board. |
|
10 07 12 10 07 16 |
Asmaa on cell phone |
She breaks
off to take a phone call. Someone seeking reassurance that the family is
really going home. |
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|
Asmaa That was my
daughter in Syria. Her uncles had just returned home, so she called to ask
when I’d be home. She was very tearful, now she’s very happy, she’s jumping
for joy. |
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10 07 40 10 07 48 |
Night vision camera |
Comm In the
dead of night, trucks load up close to the camp. Asmaa is
sure she’ll be denied transport if cameras are spotted, so the scene is
filmed covertly. |
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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
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10 07 59 10 08 22 10 08 33 |
Night journey |
Comm There’s a
much greater jeopardy here. As each family
leaves, they know they can never return. The Jordanians offer refuge only once. Anyone crossing back will lose their
protected status. These people are burning their bridges. The returnees
know when they reach their homeland without looking out. The rough track
becomes a metalled road. Those who
can see out, notice buildings, not prefabricated huts. But everyone wonders
if their home will still be standing. |
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10 08 46 10 09 00 |
Syria. Day. Interior car |
Fatema’s
husband, the grocer, is driving to the drop off point. He stayed in Syria to
try to protect their home and their shop, but sent his wife and children to
safety in Jordan. They’ve lived apart for three years, but that
ends today. |
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10 09 08 |
Ext. Rendezvous |
One among the crowd has seen the car arrive and is
making his way forward, it’s 12 year old Brahim. |
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10 09 56 10 10 20 10 10 31 |
Load up and drive Smashed buildings |
Cramming
themselves and their possessions in, Fatema’s family begin the last leg of
their journey. Breasting
the hill they catch a first glimpse of home, Hrak. It’s a
sobering sight. The city has taken a terrible beating over the five years of
war. |
|
|
Driving through the streets |
Fatema Hrak used
to be a thriving city. There were shops from one end of town to the other, on
both sides of the street. Now it’s all destroyed. |
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T/C |
PICTURE |
AUDIO |
|
10 11 01 |
Arriving home |
Comm Fatema’s
own house is damaged but only superficially. Her family is lucky, they have a
home to go to. |
|
10 11 13 10 11 26 |
Fatema walking around her home |
She
prefers not to notice the cracks in the walls, troubling instead to fill up
the water tank. Outside
she’s pleased to greet neighbours. |
|
|
|
Fatema I haven’t met up with
all my old neighbours, three quarters of them have left the country. They’re
scattered to the four winds, their homes are destroyed. |
|
10 11 42 |
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Comm In the
three years that Fatema has lived abroad as a refugee, she hasn’t forgotten
the fear that drove her away. |
|
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Fatema I saw a
missile come down right next to this house. I thought my heart would stop
beating. I was always afraid we’d be hit at home or on the street. It’s just
a matter of a metre this way or that. Thankfully it came down in the dirt. It
just made a hole in the ground. This is life in Hrak. |
|
10 12 33 |
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Comm But for
all the danger, Fatema and her family want to be together, in their own home.
They’d rather live in fear than in exile. |
|
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Fatema We pray to
God to stop all this. God willing the war will end and Syria will be safe and
secure, better than before. Because when the war is over, no one will stay
away. Everyone will come home to Syria. |
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10 13 13 10 13 22 |
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Comm United
Nations figures indicate that eleven million Syrians have been displaced. Five
million of those have fled abroad. No one knows how many have returned home,
but the tide may be turning. |
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10 13 32 |
Clover Films End Production Caption |
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