The conflicts of the Middle East have grown ever more complex, drawing in participants active and passive, domestic and foreign, and the journalists who cover them have become targets. Unlike many of their colleagues elsewhere, who are flown in by their newsrooms when the news breaks, Arab journalists live their stories. They report from their own cities and their own communities, and the threats they face come not only from governments, but sometimes from neighbours, former friends and even family. Hamad Al Hajri’s documentary examines the realities faced by these reporters working across the region, and the personal cost of bringing its stories to audiences around the world.

Built on the testimonies of more than 30 journalists, mainly Arab, alongside colleagues in the West, the film shows how much closer to the battle they came than they ever intended. It also confronts a silence within the profession: because the stories are so close to home, many Arab journalists never recognise the trauma they carry as a legitimate response to what they witness, day after day, as part of their work and their lives. Moving between Arabic and English, this is a film about the people behind the headlines, and about what it means to keep reporting when the news breaks you.