First, there was a movie, then there was a six-part limited series, and now, with the release of the documentary The Trapped 13: How We Survived the Thai Cave, we finally get to hear from the real survivors.

Through interviews and first-hand footage from the rescue and reenactments of the events, the Netflix documentary shows how 12 young boys and their soccer coach were able to survive in the flooded Tham Luang cave for 17 days.

On June 23, 2018, the Wild Boars, a group of Thai soccer players between the ages of 11 and 16, joined their 25-year-old coach Eak on a trip to the Tham Luang cave in the Chiang Rai province of northern Thailand. They asked the local spirit Nang Non for permission to enter the cave. None of the boys brought any food or snacks because they had all planned to be there for only an hour so they could be home before dinner time.

One of the survivors recalled that there was a lot of playing around and that they were teasing each other the whole way. However, within one hour of entry, heavy rainfall caused the cave to start flooding and things took a turn for the worse.

“There was always water in the cave, but now there was a lot of water coming in,” a boy named Mix said in the film. There was a vote to see who wanted to stay and who wanted to leave, but after reaching the T-junction, everyone decided rather quickly that they all wanted to venture further into the network of complex tunnels.

When a park ranger started his shift, he noticed 11 bikes and backpacks that were left behind at the entrance. He searched the bags to see if he could figure out whom they belonged to and saw a picture of a young soccer team on one of the phones. He knew right away that this was serious.

Coach Eak was starting to get worried too. He tried to jump into the water to find the exit but to no avail. The kids had to pull him out so he wouldn’t drown. “I thought I was definitely going to die,” the coach said in the documentary. Eak never showed the boys that he was fearing for their lives and he was able to keep everyone calm by having them pray and meditate. They found a spot to sleep for the night and huddled together to keep each other warm.

Hunger started to kick in and they were soon having endless conversations about food. They joked about KFC delivering food to the cave and they dreamed about their mom’s cooking.

Meanwhile, guilt was eating away at Eak. He said he felt responsible for leading the boys deeper into the tunnels, jeopardizing their safety. Because all forms of communication had been cut off from the outside world, the group didn’t know what was transpiring outside.

Rescuers were pumping massive amounts of water out of the cave while the residents of the village gathered around the entrance to pray for their safe return.

At one point, the kids thought that they heard a helicopter, but they were not sure if it was real or if it was their mind playing tricks on them. “Our brains were glitching,” Titan explained.

It would take a total of 17 days to bring out the entire soccer team alive after many feared the worst. Since then, more than a dozen books, TV and movie projects about the cave rescue have been released.

Is the world really waiting for yet another story on how the Wild Boars were brought out of the darkness of Tham Luang? Pailin Wedel, Thailand’s first-ever Emmy winner for Best Documentary, who directed The Trapped 13: How We Survived the Thai Cave, said that she initially asked herself the same question. Wedel came on board after she was hired as a researcher for the Thai Cave Rescue series, but Netflix wanted to see if she would be open to doing a documentary instead.

“I wasn’t convinced at first,” she said during a Q&A ahead of the film’s debut. “What more was there to say with all the other films in production? But when I spoke to them for the first time, it dawned on me that there weren’t that many people in the world who have heard their perspectives.”

“The story that came out of these interviews was amazing,” Wedel continued. “It was full of hope, setbacks, perseverance, and even humor. It was inspiring. That’s when I was hooked. A documentary wasn’t only possible but important. They had things to say that’s never been heard before.”