Panorama: Season 2016, Episode 30

2016 - 30: Aleppo: Life Under Siege

The battle for Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once home to over two million people, is in its fourth year. Divided between opposition-held east and government-controlled west, ordinary civilians are suffering on both sides. The east has been relentlessly bombed by the Russian military-backed forces of President Bashar al-Assad, and for the last month five citizen journalists in East Aleppo, commissioned by Panorama, have been documenting life under siege. The film is an intimate portrait of ordinary people struggling to stay alive, including a civil-defence volunteer who risks death to save his fellow citizens. The film goes behind the headlines into the backstreets of East Aleppo to show the horror, chaos and fear of the daily bombings, but also the surprising humanity, resilience and hope of the people who remain.