The final battle for the capital of the ‘Islamic State’

The Road to Raqqa

The road to Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the ‘Islamic State’, has been long and brutal. Encircled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their allies, the world’s largest terror group resorts to mining roads and houses, deploying suicide bombers, snipers and weaponised drones.

This was the most dangerous and unpredictable film our crew has worked on so far. It also became a testament to the violent territorial demise of a cult that had uprooted millions of lives across Iraq and Syria and contributed to the largest refugee crisis of our time.

There are three stops on the road to the Raqqa frontline: the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) base, a field hospital and the foreign volunteers camp. With unprecedented access, we documented their battles in the final weeks before the fall of Raqqa.