Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE LIONS BY THE RIVER TIGRIS [DOC NYC 2025 - New York, New York - Virtual]
The rebuilding of homes but those in ancient lands is always a tricky subject because it is about understanding the local culture, what has been lost, the traditions involved and the changing political ecosystem. "The Lions By The River Tigris" [Resilience] like many recent movies starts to take us into war torn area from the past several years that are just starting to come into the light out of a time of darkness. "Lions" focuses on the old town of Mosul in Northern Iraq which had been commandeered by ISIS during its ambush and pounded by various bombs. The reality is that these were people's homes that the guerillas took over. All that stands now is rubble but the artifacts, bones and destruction still remain. The main story the film follows is Bashar, whose house and all his memories stands in ruin in the old town. There is one large arch that signifies the beauty and all that remains in terms of recognizability. A local collector who is trying to buy and save some of the pieces before they are scavenged and destroyed plays violin the old city almost in a sense of nostalgia but looking at the materials. He tries to buy the arch but Bashar won't sell.
Bashar knows what is lost but just wants to salvage something and selling it means giving up what he spent his life to build (even if it is now just a pile of rocks). Bashar sitting on what might have been his roof, one can see the city on the other side of the Tigris river. It is a very powerful image as he turns over some rocks in his hand. Reality is so close but so far away. The people from the city have relocated into other dwellings. Back-hoes and tractors slowly but surely go through the rubble but there is almost nothing to save. Bashar clashes with some local men who also scavenge through the rubble saying that "this is my house" to which they say "not anymore". It is a displacement story in the worst way because one sees what was there before though a few saved photographs. But what this kind of doc (which is able to get on the ground with a closeness) is look into the lives of the aftermath of something very recent. Kids picking up old ISIS jackets in hollowed out areas along with spent ammo and femur bones of the former guerillas is chilling at times because it shows how finite each side might be. Hopefully these areas rebound but as with all humankind, scars remain even decades after. B
By Tim Wassberg
