Original subtitles

[aircraft approaching]

[explosion]

[people shouting in Arabic]

[siren wailing]

[shouting continues]

[indistinct chatter]

[man in English] Take and go.

Take him, take him, take him, take him.

[men chanting in Arabic]

[explosion]

[man yelling in Arabic]

[speaking Arabic]

[Khaled Farah in Arabic] I am married, and I have a daughter.

[speaking Arabic]

Her name is Amal.

Kiss me, kiss me.

Don't give Mom a hard time. Okay?

[Amal crying]

My family is very important to me.

I'm always worrying about them.

I have a strong belief in my work for the White Helmets.

And every time I'm on a rescue mission, I think about them.

Abu Omar!

Abu Omar!

[child calls out]

Hello. Where is your dad? Where is Abu Omar?

-He's ready. -Is he ready?

Okay, tell him to come down and we'll go to the center.

The morale of the White Helmets is always high.

We are always ready to respond to incidents.

But we just hope that the bombing and air strikes stop.

Mom, where are you? Do you need anything?

[woman replies in Arabic]

[Abu Omar] We have to admit that the situation in Syria

is going from bad to worse.

There is no solution on the horizon.

The situation is sad. Syria is sad.

[Mohammed Farah reading]

[Mohammed] Before joining the White Helmets,

I was with an armed group.

I fought for the opposition for three months.

But I saw that the regime's campaign was targeting civilians.

And I thought, "It is better to do humanitarian work than to be armed.

Better to rescue a soul than to take one."

[indistinct chatter]

[all speaking Arabic]

[man laughs]

[men continue speaking Arabic]

[aircraft approaching]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[yelling in Arabic]

It's the Russians.

[man] Come on, guys, quickly! Go! Go!

[horn honking]

[man speaking Arabic]

[honking continues]

[speaking Arabic]

[indistinct chatter]

Make a turn and come back!

We, the White Helmets, are the first to arrive when there is bombing.

-[indistinct chatter] -[children crying]

[clamoring]

[Abu Omar] If you don't have some courage, you wouldn't continue doing what we do.

[man] Go here!

Any human being, no matter who they are

or which side they're on,

if they need our help...

it's our duty to save them.

[Khaled] Does anybody need rescuing?

There's nothing. Right?

Abu Feras lives there, but I don't know whether he was in or out.

-[Khaled] Here? -He's got an iron door.

We can't get a sense if he's in or not.

[both speaking Arabic]

Can we get in via your balcony?

Whenever I'm on a rescue,

I try as hard as possible

to save every person under the rubble,

whether they are young or old.

I consider them all

to be my family.

He usually goes out during the day and comes back at night.

[Khaled] Okay, there's nothing more upstairs, right?

There's nothing, but just check on Abu Mahmoud.

Abu Mahmoud!

[speaking Arabic]

-There's no one here. -[Khaled] Thank God.

[continues speaking indistinctly]

Brother, ask people about him and keep an eye out for him.

Don't forget about him.

Whatever you need, we're the White Helmets.

[Abu Omar speaking Arabic]

There are a number of injuries and possibly two people killed.

No, there is nothing more. We're heading back to the center.

[indistinct chatter]

I have been with the White Helmets for three years.

I've seen many people who have died in bombings.

I've also seen many people who were rescued alive.

[indistinct chatter]

Abu Waleed, give me a crowbar! I want to look under the mattress.

[indistinct chatter continues]

[Khaled] But the hardest thing is seeing dead bodies.

This affects me a lot.

Guys, don't come closer. Get me a corpse bag.

But this is my duty and my job.

I have to do it for the people, for the civilians.

Only her relatives, please.

[man] People who are not doing anything, please leave.

[indistinct chatter]

[man] Her hand is stuck.

[indistinct chatter continues]

[aircraft approaching]

[clamoring]

[explosion]

[man 1] They've struck!

[man 2] Get down!

[man 1] On the ground!

[clamoring]

[explosions]

[clamoring continues]

[engine starting]

[man yelling in Arabic]

[siren wailing]

[Mohammed] The situation is very difficult in Syria right now.

Especially with Russia's intervention to support the regime.

They say that they are fighting ISIS,

but they are targeting civilians.

The casualties are rising daily.

The bloodbath is not stopping.

[siren wailing]

[horn honking]

I've lost two colleagues very dear and precious to my heart.

They were taking part in a rescue of civilians.

[explosion]

A week before, we had all been together, working, eating and drinking...

and then they were dead.

[clamoring]

[Abu Omar] Many of my colleagues have been killed.

In Aleppo city alone, we've lost 30...

Thirty White Helmets.

[boy exclaiming sadly]

All lives are precious and valuable.

A child, even if he is not my son, is like my son.

I cannot explain it.

As an example, I'll tell you a story that happened to us in Aleppo.

Two barrel bombs were dropped in the Al-Ansari area.

The first one left a number of people wounded,

but the second barrel bomb killed a lot of people.

We went into the area.

It was like a small village made of ten houses,

and all the buildings had been leveled to the ground.

On that day, our work was very hard

and we worked for about 16 hours.

[Abu Omar] I thought that I was searching under the rubble

for a baby that had died.

But all glory is to God.

We were not meant to leave the area without hearing a sound.

When I heard the sound of a baby...

[baby crying]

...my feeling was indescribable.

[Mohammed] This gave us renewed strength to continue to work.

It gave us hope that some people were still alive.

[indistinct chatter]

[Abu Omar] After 16 hours under the rubble,

a baby less than a month old, still alive...

under the dust...

under the ceilings that had fallen on him...

[baby crying]

[indistinct chatter]

[people cheering]

[Mohammed] We called him the miracle baby.

The baby was one week old and at that time my son,

Abdul Hameed, was almost two weeks old.

I don't know how it came to my mind, but I imagined that this was my son.

And I started to cry.

I couldn't hold it in,

and all my colleagues started to cry.

[indistinct chatter]

[speaking Arabic]

The hope is that you guys will convey the information you're learning

to other White Helmets in Syria.

We are under a lot of pressure right now to train as many people as we can.

God willing.

[speaking Turkish]

[in Arabic] Today, we will review listening devices

for locating people trapped under the rubble.

Can anybody hear me?

Don't move.

[man speaking Arabic]

If you can't hear anything, move the position of the sensor.

[Khaled] It's a hard feeling, that you are away from your family...

but life requires sacrifice.

So now we are sacrificing a whole month to gain expertise.

[indistinct chatter]

[speaking Arabic]

[Abu Omar] This training course means that we'll gain a lot of experience.

Our job depends on speed and accuracy

to be able to save lives

and extract victims from under the rubble.

[man] Is anybody here from Hayyan?

Two White Helmets were killed from there.

Guys, Marwan and Ahmad Daboul were killed.

And their brother is injured.

The three are all White Helmets from Hayyan.

-Today? -[man] Yesterday.

All White Helmets are targeted.

We're all targets.

We were training on the ropes when they sent us the news.

Read the opening chapter of the Qu'ran for their souls.

May God accept them.

[Abu Omar] Everyone knows the truth about Syria,

but no one's been able to stop the killing and fighting...

or stop the bloodshed and the massacres that are being committed.

[anchor speaking Arabic on TV]

[man on phone] Early reports suggest 15 people have been killed so far.

Is the area populated?

A wedding hall was completely destroyed and five or six buildings.

Abu Omar wants to talk to you

to check on his brother and son.

They work in that area.

Okay.

Hello.

Hello.

I can't get hold of my brother or my son.

I'm sorry to be bothering you,

but please can you go and check on them and then update me?

Just go to my brother's, okay?

And he will find my son.

[reporter speaking Arabic on TV]

This must be the strongest car bomb to ever hit Aleppo.

I didn't know who was speaking.

Who?

[Khaled] Listen to it.

[speaking Arabic]

My son.

This is my son.

[man] In my whole life, I've never seen so much destruction.

This is my son.

[Khaled] Yeah, thank God.

But, brother, what's really the difference

between my son and another person's?

Aren't they all innocent? What's their sin, whoever it is?

[Khaled] ISIS on the ground and the Russian planes from above.

Six buildings...

[men continue speaking Arabic]

I feel cold.

[sighs]

[Khaled] There is no war here.

No devastation.

No destruction.

Just by crossing a border,

it's so strange how the situation can change.

[Mohammed] If this was in Syria,

it would have been dropping cluster bombs from that height.

We see so many cluster bombs.

[man] Really?

It would not drop barrel bombs, because they want to cause more harm.

[man 1] There is a sound...

We can now differentiate between the sound of military and civilian aircraft.

[man 2] Take shelter, hero!

[laughing] Where would I take shelter in this building?

If a barrel bomb fell here, it would destroy the whole building!

My son is almost two years old.

He knows all about the war planes.

When planes fly over and there's an air strike...

my son jumps up on my lap and says,

"Daddy, a bomb."

[man] Allahu akbar.

Allahu akbar.

[siren blaring]

[man] Now you will learn

how you can give a practical lesson to the trainees

about putting out fires.

What is the most important thing?

Safety.

[reporter on TV] The suffering of civilians has entered a new chapter

with Russia's air campaign.

There are record levels of shelling, especially over Aleppo.

[man on phone] I am telling you, about 200 air raids a day,

and the new rockets are not like the old ones.

Two hundred air raids a day?

And every rocket is ruining a full neighborhood.

[men speaking Arabic]

[men shouting on phone]

"You, White Helmets, you are heroes. May God protect you."

I am really worried,

but I trust in God to protect my family and my colleagues.

[reporter in English] The latest slaughter in Syria

is a war crime, say France and Turkey.

For the UN, missile attacks on hospitals and schools

in rebel-held areas that left up to 50 civilians dead

were a violation of international law.

Médecins Sans Frontières says either the Syrian government,

or its main supporter Russia, was responsible...

[indistinct chatter]

[Abu Omar in Arabic] His brother is under the rubble,

but his condition is not known yet.

[man] Three people are still under the rubble.

Him and two of his colleagues.

They were able to pull one out.

There were four in the hospital laboratory.

They got one out, but three are left.

They just sent an announcement with their names.

I want him to cry. It's better.

I was in a situation similar to Abu Zaid.

My brother was killed five months ago.

I had a training course like this one in Istanbul.

I went there and arrived in the morning. You know, it's a long way.

I slept a few hours.

When I awoke, I asked my friend to open the Internet for me,

as I didn't know how.

I had my brother's phone at the time.

I got online and saw my brother's photo. Dead.

It was the first photo I had looked at.

What's next, Ibrahim?

[Ibrahim] We've stopped. Done for the day.

We're not able to do any work.

-[Ibrahim] Emotionally, we can't. -Yes, right.

[man on phone] We've just got two women out, alive.

Do you understand me?

And we got out Allaa Al-Halak and another one with him, dead.

Are you just listening or are you speaking with him?

[man] You talk with him, Abu Basheer.

Oh, Hamid.

Can you hear me? I'm Abu Basheer.

Tell us the news. Has Abu Karmu been killed

or have you pulled him out alive?

Just tell us.

His brother is confused and does not know what to do.

[Hamid] Abu Basheer, just be patient for 30 minutes more,

and then call me back.

I just spoke with the guys to find out if people are still alive.

[knocking on door]

Listen to me.

There were two killed.

[all speaking in Arabic]

He understood from you that he is dead.

Your brother is our brother. God bless him.

So you still haven't got him out?

Nothing is clear yet.

Thanks, brother, and please do your best.

I know we don't need to tell you, but you are real heroes.

[reporter speaking Arabic on TV]

Today, they hit all the hospitals...

in Aleppo and in Idlib.

Now their targets are the hospitals.

Are these today's victims from the hospital?

Updated nine minutes ago.

His name is among them.

[Islamic call to worship]

[inaudible]

[Mohammed] Tomorrow will be better.

We are always optimistic that what's to come is better.

Justice will prevail one day.

[indistinct chatter]

[Abu Omar] Without hope, what good is life?

People will die without hope.

It's a feeling of happiness.

True happiness, you have to experience it to understand.

[speaking indistinctly]

[speaking Arabic]

[baby cooing]

[Abu Omar] An indescribable happiness.

A baby that I haven't seen for a year and a half.

His is a very precious life.

Do you know the feeling that you get when you plant a small seed

and it grows into a beautiful bush?

That's how we feel that this baby is still alive

thanks to God and to our work.

We feel very proud.

[indistinct chatter]

Thank God he's alive and doing well.

[speaking Arabic]

[speaking Arabic]

[Abu Omar] I've learned many lessons from baby Mahmoud.

Patience, persistence, hard work...

and never to lose hope.

If a person is destined to live,

no matter what happens, they will live.

I have a lot of hopes for my own daughter.

I have a lot of dreams for her, actually.

When I come back from work and I pick her up...

I look at her and I'm very sad

about the fate of children who lost their lives during the shelling.

But, at the same time, I wish for her to fulfill her dreams...

and grow up to be many, many years old.

[inaudible]

[Abu Omar] Every morning, I wake up and do this work because it's my duty,

my humanitarian duty.

I will never quit as long as I'm still alive.

I'm willing to sacrifice my soul for the sake of the people.

This job is sacred.

I am trying to do something for the people

and for my country.

[Abu Omar] In the White Helmets, we have a motto...

"To save a life is to save all of humanity."