7 Days in Syria

Harsh documentary in which Newsweek reporter Janine di Giovanni travels to Syria to witness how citizens live and survive in the war zone. Together with photojournalist Nicole Tung and a camera man she goes on a seven-day tour across the country to show not only the horrors of war, but also the strength and courage of those who face death and destruction every day.

Newsweek’s Middle East correspondent Janine di Giovanni asked permission to go to Syria to report on the situation among the civilian population living in the frontline. Her request was turned down on the grounds that Syria was too dangerous for journalists. And for a reason: two weeks before her scheduled departure, her friend, American journalist James Foley, was captured and later beheaded by IS.

Yet Di Giovanni decided to go. Together with a photojournalist and a camera man she set out on a seven-day, perilous journey across the war-ridden country to witness how people there live and survive in extreme conditions every day. The camera zooms in on a former carpenter from Aleppo who now bakes bread to feed his compatriots. On doctors who put themselves out in a hospital with staff shortage, and on young Syrian national Waed who studied economics until her university was shelled. Now she collects ‘visual evidence’ of the events that can later be used in court.