The Lions by the River Tigris: Restoring Mosul’s artefacts

What the report says

Al Jazeera’s documentary film “The Lions by the River Tigris” looks at Mosul’s efforts to recover its cultural heritage after the city was devastated in the fight against ISIL. The film centers on three men whose experiences reflect different ways residents are grappling with loss, memory and restoration in northern Iraq.

According to the broadcaster, Bashar, a fisherman, lost his family home in the battle to liberate Mosul and now protects what is left of a marble gate topped by two carved lions. Fakhri, described as a collector, tries to acquire the gate for his private, unofficial museum, seeing it as an important piece of the city’s past. His friend Fadil, a musician who was once silenced under ISIL, pushes back against treating artefacts as objects divorced from the people who lived through the conflict.

The film is set in Mosul, a city with a long history and a cultural identity deeply affected by years of war and destruction. Its broader significance lies in showing how heritage recovery can become part of rebuilding civic life, while also raising questions about who protects antiquities and at what human cost. Al Jazeera identifies the documentary as a work by Zaradasht Ahmed, published on 7 November 2026.