Channel 4 marks 10 years of war in Syria with All 4 showcase

15 March 2021

To commemorate the tragic 10 year anniversary of the start of the Syrian uprising and subsequent brutal and ongoing war, Channel 4 News and Current Affairs is to highlight its extensive coverage of the conflict. From March 15th, All 4 will be showcasing some of the defining programmes that brought new understanding to a conflict that has devastated a nation and created the biggest refugee crisis in living memory. Headlining the curation is the BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated For Sama, the astonishing story of a 26-year old female Syrian filmmaker, Waad al-Kateab, who filmed her life in the rebel-held city of Aleppo. From the ruins of Syria to starting a new life in Europe, Children on the Frontline: The Escape shines a light on the intimate stories of families forced to flee their homeland. From the Dispatches strand, Syria’s Disappeared looks at the terror being inflicted on the Syrian people by the Assad regime while the Emmy-winning Escape from ISIS hones in on the work being done to protect women and children from the horror of an extremist death cult. Prominently featured in the showcase are films from the Unreported World strand, which with unflinching access bring us to the frontline of the conflict: from the first undercover documentary to spend time with the opposition outside Damascus, to a truly unique look into how one city succeeded in beating ISIS.

The All 4 collection will include:

For Sama (2019): An epic and intimate journey filmed through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria.

Unreported World: Dying to Come to Britain (2017): In Lebanon, Syrian refugee children with serious medical conditions are suffering and dying while they wait for help that the international community has promised but not delivered.

Unreported World: Rebuilding Generation War (2017): Yousra Elbagir visits the Mowasah hospital in Jordan where Doctors Without Borders surgeons are helping innocent victims of the wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen

Syria's Disappeared: Dispatches (2017): The hidden story of the many people disappeared in Syria by the Assad regime.

Children on the Frontline: The Escape (2016): A unique film following a family from the ruins of their Syria to starting new lives in Germany.

Escape from ISIS: Dispatches (2015): The story of a secret network set up to save women and children from ISIS.

Unreported World: The City that Beat ISIS (2015):  A unique, devastating insight into the last days in the battle between Kurdish fighters and Isis for the Syrian town of Kobani.

Unreported World: The Invisible People (2014): Unreported World visits Lebanon to reveal the plight of some of the most vulnerable refugees fleeing the war in Syria: disabled people, many of whom are children.

Unreported World: Syria's Rebel Doctor (2013): Reporter Evan Williams meets Dr Rami Habib, the NHS doctor who is risking his life by providing frontline medical care to the victims of the worsening conflict in Syria

Syria's Torture Machine (2011): Forensic investigation into the brutality and torture inside the Assad detention system.

Unreported World: Undercover Syria (2011): Ramita Navai spends two weeks undercover in some of the most dangerous parts of Syria with members of the opposition movement determined to overthrow President Assad's brutal dictatorship. One of the first reports out of Syria to hear from the rebel forces.

Commissioning editor Siobhan Sinnerton who commissioned the films over a 10 year period said:  The collective suffering and trauma contained in this collection is impossible to quantify. But thanks to the brilliant, brave and dedicated network of freelance film-makers and local producers we have worked with, it provides an indisputable historical record of the consequences of the assault on its own people by the Russian-backed Assad regime. It also serves as a reminder that 10 years on, we must not forget the suffering of the Syrian people.