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Bashar is the heart of the film. His life was forever changed when the Islamic State seized his home in Mosul’s Old City, turning it into a bomb factory. During the final battle for the city’s liberation, a series of explosions reduced his house to dust. Now 4 generations live in a tiny rental house with no hope of any changes soon.
Help us support Bashar rebuild his house
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Bashar, a 57-year-old fisherman, is the heart of the film. His life was forever changed when the Islamic State seized his home in Mosul’s Old City, turning it into a bomb factory. During the final battle for the city’s liberation, a series of explosions reduced his house to dust. The only remnant of his family’s home is a marble gate with two carved lions, which he now obsessively protects from looters and collectors. To Bashar, these lions are not just stone figures – they are the last tangible link to his lost past.
Now 4 generations live in a tiny rental house with no hope of any changes soon.
We therefore want to help Bashar rebuild his house so that his grandchildren have a better future. And also to raise awareness about the state of the cultural heritage in the Old City of Mosul.
Your donations will be forwarded to Bashar and his family!
SYNOPSIS FOR THE FILM
In the heart of war-ravaged Mosul, a single marble gate stands amid the ruins. Carved into its stone are two lions—the last trace of what was once one of the city’s grandest homes along the Tigris River. Like thousands of historic buildings in Mosul’s Old City, the house is gone. The Islamic State seized it, turned it into a bomb-making factory, and when the battle for liberation erupted—one of the most intense air campaigns since World War II—it was obliterated. Yet the gate survived. The lions, frozen in stone, endure as silent witnesses to the city’s destruction—and its fight to reclaim its soul.
Bashar, a 52-year-old fisherman, was the home’s owner. Four generations of his family once lived there. Now, only the lions remain. To others, they are historical artifacts; to Bashar, they are the last link to his past, his family, his identity. He refuses to let them go, clinging to the hope that his home can one day be rebuilt.
Fakhri, a relentless collector, has spent years salvaging fragments of Mosul’s history, amassing over 6,000 relics in a race to preserve what war tried to erase. His home has become a private museum, visited by people from all over Iraq. But the one object he wants most—the lions on Bashar’s gate—remains out of reach.
Fakhri’s friend, Fadel, is a musician who once risked his life to keep his violin and oud hidden from ISIS, knowing that playing music meant death. Now, he plays openly, reclaiming the sound of a city that extremists tried to silence.
As Bashar fights to hold on to the last piece of his past and Fakhri hunts for lost history, Mosul is undergoing an unexpected transformation. Women are reclaiming public spaces, theaters are reopening, and music schools are emerging. But the future is uncertain. Will Bashar be able to protect his lions, or will they be taken from him? Can Fadel’s music inspire a new generation to choose art over extremism? And has the Islamic State truly disappeared, or is it waiting in the shadows?
Directed by IDFA-winning Kurdish-Norwegian filmmaker Zaradasht Ahmed, The Lions by the River Tigris is an intimate, unfiltered portrait of a city at a crossroads. More than a story of survival, it is a testament to human dignity, cultural identity, and the fight for freedom of expression in the face of destruction.
As global attention moves from one crisis to the next, The Lions by the River Tigris is a stark reminder: understanding Mosul’s past and present is key to understanding the future of the Middle East—and the fate of democracies worldwide.
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