Enredo

In Mosul, a city devastated during the battle for liberation from the Islamic State, the fight to heal and preserve its identity, culture, and art is not over. Three men refuse to let Mosul remain in ruins.

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 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.