Iraq, Nineveh

Iraq, Nineveh - 28' 27''
“I am Yohanna Yousif, a Syrian Catholic Christian from Qaraqosh. I am a professor at the University of Al-Hamdaniya. Now, I am displaced in Erbil. When we got here, the people were in the streets, in gardens. There weren’t any hotels and places to stay. I lived in Mosul in 2006. Al Qaeda threatened me then. They asked for the Jyza (an Islamic tax). They told me I had to pay 5000 dollars. If I didn’t pay them, they would kill me and kidnap my children. That is why I left Mosul one morning with the aid of many Muslim friends.”
The story of Professor Yohanna Yousif reflects that of thousands of Christians and other minorities who fled the invasion of Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in the summer of 2014.
The film is a compilation of powerful testimonies of 6 Christians of the Nineveh plains who share the painful journey they had to go through since the invasion of their villages by DAESH. Each one of them explains what it means to go back to their devastated towns and what is the hope they have for the future. Sister Diana Momeka a Dominican sister says:
“I grew up from war to war. I don’t recall being angry at God; rather, I asked God why the things that were happening were happening. Every pain, every suffering I receive on the ground I place it on the Eucharist we celebrate every day. I feel God embraces part of the burden and takes it from my shoulders. When I go to church and I see hundreds of people attending the services. Some say: this is piety and not faith. I tell myself this is faith.”
Archbishop Bashar Warda summarizes very well the experience of his people:
“They can take the stones, but faith is still inside”.
Date of Production: 2017
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This CRTN production was financed by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. More information can be found here:
www.acn-intl.org/
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