Under the Wire

In February 2012, the award-winning war correspondent Marie Colvin and British photographer Paul Conroy traveled to war-torn Syria. They wanted to show the world the suffering of civilians under constant bombardment by the Syrian army in besieged Homs. Only Paul Conroy returned alive. Marie Colvin was killed by a shell on February 22, 2012, in what is believed to have been a deliberate artillery attack on the improvised media center in Homs. Photographer Rémi Ochlik was also killed in the attack. Paul Conroy escaped death by a hair's breadth, but was severely injured. In this documentary, Conroy tells Marie Colvin's story. Bearing witness was the reporter's credo. Consequently, the film is also about the people in Bab al-Amr, the most heavily fought-over district of Homs. Colvin wanted to show the world their suffering: women and children hoping for an end to the shelling while sitting in a completely overcrowded cellar with only rice and a little water to eat. The film also tells the story of Dr. Mohammed Mohammed, a field doctor who tries to help the wounded survive, including Paul Conroy and a team of French journalists. During the time that Marie Colvin and Paul Conroy were reporting from Homs, countless innocent people, from babies to old women, died in the Assad regime's incessant bombing. Assad attacks his own people because they dared to rise up against him. Bearing witness to the fact that the Syrian regime hunted down civilians has become the life's mission of the seriously injured and traumatized Paul Conroy. Homs was a center of the Syrian branch of the Arab Spring – and Assad took bloody revenge on the city and its people. The perspective of the participants of the Arab Spring is represented in the film by Wa'el, who assisted Colvin and Conroy on the ground as a translator and producer.