Ajyal Feature Film Competition
In Mosul, a city reduced to ruins after ISIS occupation, three men fight to keep its memory alive. Bashar, a fisherman, guards the marble lions that survived his destroyed family home. Fakhri, a collector, salvages thousands of artifacts from oblivion. Fadel, a musician once silenced, now plays freely, teaching the next generation. Together, they embody resilience, dignity, and struggle to heal a wounded city’s soul.
In Mosul, a city reduced to ruins after ISIS occupation, three men fight to keep its memory alive. Bashar, a fisherman, guards the marble lions that survived his destroyed family home. Fakhri, a collector, salvages thousands of artifacts from oblivion. Fadel, a musician once silenced, now plays freely, teaching the next generation. Together, they embody resilience, dignity, and struggle to heal a wounded city’s soul.
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Set in the heart of Mosul, a city devastated during the battle for liberation from ISIS, The Lions by the River Tigris’ captures the fight to preserve identity and memory. The documentary follows three men guarding the embers of their city’s spirit: Bashar, a fisherman protecting the marble lions that survived his destroyed home; Fakhri, a passionate, relentless collector preserving thousands of Iraq’s artefacts and cultural heritage; and Fadel, a violinist who once risked his life to keep music alive, now plays openly and his melodies represent a defiant act of healing for a new generation.
As the city slowly rebuilds, their intertwined stories reveal a haunting portrait of endurance and rebirth. Through their hands and voices, the city’s wounded soul begins to stir, to reclaim its cultural soul while confronting the shadows of extremism. The film combines poetic visuals with intimate observation, illuminating the human will to create meaning amid destruction. ‘The Lions by the River Tigris’ is both intimate and urgent, a powerful testament to resilience, memory, art, human dignity, and the enduring power of culture to heal what war has torn apart. It poses a critical question: in the aftermath of erasure, can art and remembrance truly rebuild a future?
Set in the heart of Mosul, a city devastated during the battle for liberation from ISIS, The Lions by the River Tigris’ captures the fight to preserve identity and memory. The documentary follows three men guarding the embers of their city’s spirit: Bashar, a fisherman protecting the marble lions that survived his destroyed home; Fakhri, a passionate, relentless collector preserving thousands of Iraq’s artefacts and cultural heritage; and Fadel, a violinist who once risked his life to keep music alive, now plays openly and his melodies represent a defiant act of healing for a new generation.
As the city slowly rebuilds, their intertwined stories reveal a haunting portrait of endurance and rebirth. Through their hands and voices, the city’s wounded soul begins to stir, to reclaim its cultural soul while confronting the shadows of extremism. The film combines poetic visuals with intimate observation, illuminating the human will to create meaning amid destruction. ‘The Lions by the River Tigris’ is both intimate and urgent, a powerful testament to resilience, memory, art, human dignity, and the enduring power of culture to heal what war has torn apart. It poses a critical question: in the aftermath of erasure, can art and remembrance truly rebuild a future?
