The Guardians of Civilisation is a documentary film initiated by Erik Valencic, a journalist who has been covering Middle East wars as a reporter since 2003. The film follows the tragic fate of Assyrian people in Iraq whose existence in the region is threatened. The Assyrian community is also referred to as Syriac or Chaldean and is predominantly Christian.
In 2003, there were roughly 1.5 million Assyrians living in Iraq. Today only about 250.000 remain there. Throughout the last 14 years, they have suffered many forms of repression, which destroyed much of their historical and cultural heritage. The vast majority of Assyrians have thus fled in desperation as they see no end to war and terror. But some of them remained. They became the guardians of the civilisation that stood the test of time for eight thousand years and is now seriously endangered. If it disappears, the Middle East will lose one of its founding identities and the world a part of its humanity. In the documentary film, we focus on several Assyrian artists who decided to stay in Iraq and are actively working to rebuild their historical, cultural and religious heritage which has been destroyed. The ultimate objective of the film is to draw attention on potential disappearance of the shared legacy. We also hope our contribution will help improve the situation of Assyrian community in their homeland.