AFFR Special: The Lions By The River Tigris
Location: LantarenVenster
On 11 February, AFFR returns to LantarenVenster with the special, one-off screening of The Lions By The River Tigris – a hopeful portrait of a war-torn city finding back its soul; the film didn’t become runner-up at last year’s Audience Award for no reason. With an introduction by architect Hend Charaf.
About the film
Zaradasht Ahmed | The Netherlands/Norway | 2025 | 92′
One of the world’s oldest cities, Mosul, Iraq was left in ruins after years of ISIS occupation and the devastating battle for liberation that followed. In this unexpectedly hopeful film, we follow three men who try to rebuild not just the city, but also its soul.
Bashar, a fisherman, returns again and again to his bombed-out family home, where a carved marble lintel featuring two lions is the last relic still standing from his past. Fakhri, a passionated antiques collector, dreams of placing the lions at the entrance of his self-made museum, determined as he is to preserve the city’s history, while Fadel, a musician, revives songs that were banned during the ISIS rule.
Director Zaradasht Ahmed captures with dignity and tenderness a city slowly re-emerging from its trauma.
Screening i.c.w. LantarenVenster and Amstelfilm
The Lions By The River Tigris will be introduced by Hend Cheraf, a Syrian-born architect whose work addresses questions of reconstruction—particularly that of her homeland, also devastated by war.
Hend Charaf is an Syrian/Dutch architect with international experience across the Middle East and Europe, having lived and worked in Damascus, Beirut, Dubai, Morocco, and Amsterdam. Her work is grounded in human-centered and inclusive design, with a strong focus on the social impact of architecture in everyday life.
Drawing on professional practice in housing, education, and socially driven projects, Hend brings a cross-cultural perspective to design that bridges context, identity, and care. She is particularly interested in architectural interventions that work with existing systems and resources, creating meaningful improvements through thoughtful, realistic design decisions.
Grounded in international experience and lived realities, Hend frames architecture as a social and cultural practice engaged with questions of recovery, continuity, and resilience. Her research examines the role of architectural interventions in supporting inclusive environments in contexts affected by disruption.
NB introduction in English, English subtitles.
