A Surrey primary school is closed, its fences covered in barbed wire to stop anyone getting in. A store has virtually no goods and charges hugely-inflated prices. An ambulance rushing to hospital is stopped by a roadblock.
This all takes place in new advert from Save The Children - ‘What if Surrey Were Syria?’ which explores the reaction of local people when they are confronted with roadblocks, school closures and food shortages on the scale that have happened in Syria during the four-year civil war.
In the video, horrified members of the public react with bewilderment and anger to the scenarios, clashing with actors playing people manning roadblocks, shopkeepers explaining why shop shelves are empty and paramedics who cannot reach hospitals.
Residents were stunned by the difficulties they faced
Another situation, where an ambulance carrying a mother and her sick child is unable to pass through a checkpoint, attracts concerned onlookers.
Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth said: “A tiny fraction of Syrian refugees make it to Europe. The poorest, the sick and the elderly remain under siege, barrel-bombed, gassed and shot, starved of food and medicine.
“Despite the generosity of the UK government and others, more widely, money to assist millions living in refugees camps is drying up.
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“These families now face an extreme choice, to return to a war zone or risk drowning as they are smuggled into Europe.
“If the average European citizen would not stand for being cut off from food, healthcare and schooling, why should Syrian families?”
The latest video follows Save The Children’s ‘What If London Were Syria?’ video, released last year, which went viral.
The shocking video, shot in a second-a-day format, showed the disintegration of a young girl’s comfortable life as civil war grips the country.