Journalist recounts years as Syrian prisoner in documentary

BOSTON (AP) — In 2012, freelance journalist Theo Padnos slipped into Syria to cover its unfolding civil war and was promptly kidnapped by members of an al-Qaida branch.

Convinced he was a CIA agent because he spoke Arabic, the group held the Massachusetts native for nearly two years before releasing him in August 2014.

Padnos reflects on his captivity on sets emulating his tiny prison cell and the room he was subjected to torture and beatings.

Along the Turkey-Syria border, he recalls the moment when his travelling companions instruct him to dash across the field and hop the razor wire fence separating them from Syria.

Curtis and other family members, working with the U.S. and Qatari governments, successfully arranged for Padnos' release just days after the Islamic State beheaded New Hampshire journalist James Foley in a video.

Director David Schisgall says Padnos' story is a rare eyewitness account of life inside a jihadi group by an outsider with a deep understanding of the region's language and culture.