Original subtitles

Can hear this drone overhead,

so having to stay under the trees.

Go, go.

Shit. That's a drone.

Russian and Syrian jets are circling.

♪ dramatic music ♪

How you feeling?

speaking native language

[Isobel] We spent the last few days

seeing children who were being slaughtered,

and you're okay with having a direct role in that.

♪♪♪

[bowl rings]

[Dexter] I was in South Korea

before the major outbreak there

and found a different understanding of isolation.

Yo.

It's kind of intense.

They give you this workbook.

Like, if you die in one year,

what do you want to do with the rest of your life?

Wow.

♪ heavy electronic music ♪

♪♪♪

People will die!

♪♪♪

[gun cocks]

♪♪♪

♪ mournful music ♪

♪♪♪

Let's just find out what we know.

[man] Come on!

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!

[Isobel] What's happening?

Go, go, go! Run, run, run.

Run, run, run, run!

Run!

[man] Run!

[Isobel] What's happening?

[man] We just started to run.

[Isobel] So we're just trying to get

to what we think is a Russian air strike,

um, not very long ago,

um, and as we're approaching it,

the guys ahead of us, um,

saw what they think is a fighter jet

circling ahead.

[sighs] It is just terrifying.

I mean, this is a fully residential area.

In Idlib, Syria's last rebel-held province,

nowhere is safe.

With fears of a fighter jet circling overhead,

we left quickly for the nearby hospital.

♪♪♪

Are these bodies from just now?

[Isobel] Oh, my God.

- [Isobel] It's a child? - [man] Yeah.

It's a young boy. Oh, my God, that's...

heartbreaking.

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[sobs]

♪♪♪

[monitor beeping]

♪♪♪

[Isobel] He's just suddenly stopped breathing.

They're trying to resuscitate him.

[speaking in native language]

He was--stopped breathing for a good few minutes,

and those guys were pumping and pumping and pumping,

and nothing.

There was a power cut in the middle of it.

I cannot believe he's alive.

Ten died, and seven were badly injured

in this one attack, this one night,

but in Idlib, this is the daily reality.

It's been nine years since protests

against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad

escalated into one of the most brutal civil wars

in living memory.

Hundreds of thousands are dead.

Over two-thirds of the country have been displaced.

Backed by allies Russia and Iran,

who have economic and political interests

across the region,

the Syrian president is now retaking

more and more land.

Many of the civilians who fled

have been pushed here, to Idlib.

But since December of last year,

the regime has intensified its push

to retake the territory

from rebel and jihadist groups.

With three million civilians caught in the cross fire,

this campaign has led

to the worst humanitarian crisis

of the entire war so far.

Part of that are bombing campaigns

that seem to target civilians, not fighters.

On February 25th,

eight schools were bombed across Idlib Province.

This one was housing displaced families

and providing classes for children.

One of those kids was nine-year-old Dalaa.

She survived the strike with only a minor foot injury.

[Isobel] We wanted to know if Dalaa's school

was intentionally targeted.

We found that on the day of the strike,

between 1:15 and 2:01 p.m.,

local spotters noted five sightings

of observation planes flying in nearby areas.

At 3:35 p.m.,

a Russian fighter jet was then spotted

circling just five miles from Dalaa's school,

and just two minutes later, at 3:37 p.m.,

the missiles struck,

suggesting this may have been

a planned, targeted attack

on a school full of kids.

Careful, careful.

Is this blood here?

Mm.

♪♪♪

[Isobel] So you were living here,

and you had classes here as well.

♪♪♪

Oh, careful, careful.

You okay?

♪♪♪

What's--what's happening?

Dalaa hears a jet overhead

and is immediately paralyzed with fear.

Oh, my God, you're shaking so much.

How are you feeling?

♪♪♪

[Isobel] What would you say to President Assad

if you met him today?

♪ uneasy music ♪

[Isobel] These attacks by Assad and his allies

are relentless,

but the rebels, backed by Turkey,

are fighting back.

♪♪♪

We're just moving towards an area

where the rebels are launching rockets,

and up here, we can see this is rebel-held territory

because of these circles in the sky

where jets have been flying overhead,

figuring out where they're gonna drop.

♪♪♪

So these guys are about to launch a rock--

[boom]

Shit.

Into regime-held territory.

Um, we're having to stay low

under the shades of the trees because, as you can see,

the Russian and Syrian jets are circling

around these guys, so--

trying to figure out where their positions are.

♪♪♪

Is that a drone?

It's a drone? A drone?

Stay still.

[engine humming]

Shit.

♪ tense music ♪

- Go, go. - [Isobel] Shit.

♪♪♪

Can hear this drone overhead,

which is just searching for any form of movement,

so having to stay under the trees

in the hopes they don't spot us.

[Isobel] Move quick, quick. Move quick.

Drone! Fuck.

♪♪♪

Go, go, go.

[chatter in native language]

[distant explosion]

[Isobel] To avoid being targeted

by aircrafts overhead,

the rebels are constantly on the move.

♪♪♪

[Isobel] What are these tanks?

So you were just 15 when the revolution started.

What were you doing back then?

The Syrian regime has justified the bombardment of Idlib

by saying that what they're fighting against

is terrorists, and, I mean, there has been so much movement

between different rebel factions,

different rebel groups.

Do they have a point?

[Isobel] The rebels are determined

that Assad's forces will pay.

[Isobel] In 2015, they successfully captured

a Syrian regime colonel

who was on a mission to Aleppo

when his engine failed.

Five years on, we spoke with him

in a secret location.

He's not only complicit,

but has directly participated

in Assad's slaughtering campaigns.

[both greeting in Arabic]

Obviously, we're only able to talk with you

because the opposition forces who are in charge here

have allowed us to meet with you.

Have you been pressured into talking with us

or saying certain things to us?

[Isobel] You were captured in 2015.

Um, there's video footage

of you guys prepping three barrel bombs.

What was the mission that you were on?

Do you know if there were civilians

where you were trying to drop those bombs?

You're okay with dropping bombs

on what you're 90 percent sure could land on civilians?

Over the last few years, we've seen millions

of Syrian citizens, civilians, having to flee,

hundreds of thousands of people losing their lives.

We spent the last few days seeing children

who are being slaughtered intentionally by the regime,

and you're okay with being a part of that,

and not only a part of it,

but having a direct role in that.

Arguably, I mean, it's the willingness

of people like yourself

to participate in what can only be described as war crimes

which allows this war to continue.

Does that haunt you?

[Isobel] With Assad, his troops, and his allies

intent on retaking Idlib at any cost,

almost a million people have been displaced

as a result of the fighting.

Satellite images taken one year apart

show the expansion of refugee camps

in the areas close to the Turkish border:

a mass exodus.

[Isobel] Those who make it out are taken to makeshift camps,

like this one in Idlib City's football stadium,

which has so far escaped the bombs.

It currently shelters 1,500 displaced people.

Around half of those are children.

Local volunteers like Abd al Qadir

try to help the children cope

with their dire circumstances.

Okay, okay, okay.

Hey. Ooh, come on.

- [Isobel] Hey, hey, hey. - [boy] Hey, hey.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Buddy, bu--hey, no.

No, no, no, no. Hey, are you okay?

[Isobel] The children here were born into this war,

but with only a fragile ceasefire in place

and fears of COVID-19 now spreading like wildfire

across these sprawling camps,

people here hold a future where vulnerability

and uncertainty are all that's known.

♪ desolate music ♪

[all singing]

♪♪♪

♪ somber music ♪

♪♪♪

♪ quiet electronic music ♪

♪♪♪

[Dexter] Right now, the entire state of California

is basically on lockdown because of coronavirus.

I'm at my apartment in Los Angeles, self-isolating,

and wherever you're watching this,

you might be doing the same thing, too.

What you're about to watch right now

was filmed before this all happened.

I was in South Korea

before the major outbreak happened there,

and way before the United States government

was taking this all seriously.

I was there because I was curious

about how our modern society deals with things

like mental health and depression,

and it sounded like some people in South Korea

might have some answers.

♪♪♪

♪ folksy string music ♪

♪♪♪

We're about two hours outside of Seoul,

and I'm headed to go spend a day in jail.

This is a program called Prison Inside Me,

and basically, the idea is,

South Korea right now has the highest rate of suicide

among developed nations,

and there's a lot of people feeling stressed out.

So there's a person who's come up with a program

where you pay money to spend a day or longer

in kind of a mock-up jail cell,

and you meditate, you chill out, you disconnect.

So I'm gonna go participate in that

and hopefully feel better about my life.

♪♪♪

Seems like if Urban Outfitters designed a prison,

this would--this would be it.

♪ gentle string music ♪

♪♪♪

Yo.

This is-- this is really small.

I can't even lie down sideways.

[laughing] This thing is tiny.

Bed. Where's the bed?

♪♪♪

Okay, that's plumbing.

Okay, there's my bed.

There's my pillow.

I got a tea set, actually, which looks very nice,

and I got a view.

[bowl ringing]

♪♪♪

♪ serene music ♪

♪♪♪

[soft ringing tone continues]

[laughs]

[whispering] They gave me a potato...

[laughs] And a banana milkshake.

This is my dinner.

Oh, my God.

They gave me a potato and a milkshake.

♪ low electronic music ♪

♪♪♪

So I've been in here about four hours.

It's kind of cool lying on your back, though,

and then staring up at the window,

and you just see clouds go by when there's clouds.

♪♪♪

What is it that is

stressing people out so much in South Korea?

It seems like kind of the core guiding principle

of Prison Inside Me

is that people don't have enough time on their own.

Do you think that's a problem here,

that people don't have enough time by themselves?

[chimes tinkling]

[metallic plucking sounds]

So this is what I've been doing for--

I probably did this for about an hour.

When you get bored,

this is how you entertain yourself.

♪ gentle music ♪

When you come in, they give you this workbook.

It's kind of intense.

Like, they want you to draw a graph

of your life,

the good moments and the bad moments.

So you gotta start from when you're a baby

and go all the way until now.

The good parts are up here,

and this is the happy zone,

and this is the sad zone.

But looking at it, I mean,

I guess I realize,

"Oh, okay. My life's--

I guess my life's not that bad."

This one here-- "If you die a year from now,

what do you want to do?"-- they make you draw a picture.

Man, if I knew that I had a year left

and that was it... I'd stop everything.

I'd get a bunch of books, play a bunch of video games,

listen to music, hang out with my friends,

and I wouldn't do a damn thing.

That's what I would do.

♪♪♪

I guess you could say that this is just an escape--

I mean, coming here for 24 hours or whatever.

It doesn't fix anything. As soon as I go outside,

I'm gonna have to answer emails,

family obligations, work obligations.

This is like hitting pause

and knowing as soon as you go back outside,

the rest of the world is-- is waiting for you.

If you told me I had to spend the next month here

instead of just all the stressful obligations

and stuff like that outside,

I'd probably take you up on it right now.

I would sit in this room

rather than deal with all that garbage outside,

man, no joke.

Wow.

[bowl ringing]

♪ synth music ♪

[light clapping]

[Dexter] Sitting in this room and listening

to the problems that people had--

they sounded really familiar to me.

Nothing seemed particularly Korean.

Do you think this program

could also work, say, in the U.S.?

♪ folksy music ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪