Documentary on displaced Christian Iraqis in Ninewa

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: A documentary about the life of displaced Christian Iraqis after the 2003 invasion has been shot in Ninewa province, the Lebanese director of the film said on Thursday. “The documentary was shot in Krimlis village, Ninewa, in addition to a number of ancient monasteries in the province,” Ziyad al-Rahbani told IraqiNews.com news agency. The documentary is about the displacement of Christian Iraqi after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country, the film maker noted, adding that all actors are local residents of the village. According to figures released by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.4 million refugees have left their houses in the aftermath of the invasion, including 2.2 million internally displaced persons. Nearly 1.4 million Iraqis are currently living in Syria, more than 500,000 others in Jordan, and fewer numbers in Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Gulf countries. “The documentary will be screened at a Lebanon-based conference on February 19,” the director added. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa province, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. The original city of Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient biblical city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. Despite having an amount of Kurdish population, it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). There are different communities in Mosul like Christians, Shiites and Kurds along with a Sunni majority. The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, Yunus in Arabic, and Nahum. SS (S) /SR 1