An interview for a documentary with 3 students from Kurdistan.
February 23, 2015, 12:36
On Sunday, February the 22nd a film crew which prepares the documentary “N as the Nazarenes,” about the life of Christians in the Middle East, led by the director Maciej Grabysa, filmed interviews with the Christian students from Kurdistan: Maryam, Fadi and Rawand. The interview was filmed in front of the cameras in the office of the Kurdish Center for Information and Documentation, which provides the support of the documentary project.
At the interview they were asked the questions about the situation of Christians in Iraq, their opinion about the ISIS offensive and the current condition of refugees sheltered in Kurdistan.
They pointed out that the situation of Christians in Kurdistan is completely different to the one in Iraq where Christians are kidnapped and killed all the time. When the journalist asked Maryam about the most shocking memory of Christian oppression in Iraq she couldn’t hold back her tears while telling the story of 2010 when the terrorists went to the church during Sunday’s mass and killed everyone including women, children and priests. Altogether there were about 58 people.
Fadi told a story of a family who he met at the refugee camp.Their small daughter was kidnapped by the ISIS terrorists and her fate is still unknown. He said that he believes ISIS will not be able to seize Kurdistan because they have the Peshmerga and all the Kurds are united under one idea and are a very strong nation.
Rawand was talking about his first impressions when the refugees started to flee from the seized city of Mosul to Ankawa. At that time he was working in a group of people at the church who helped the refugees to get the first help, food and shelter.
All three students said that Christians feel safe in Kurdistan as they can pray safely and celebrate their religious holidays. But Christians in Iraq need help as everyone deserves to have the same rights.
They thanked the main charity foundations which help to cover the cost of refugee maintenance in Kurdistan at the moment such as UNICEF, Church in need, Barzani foundation and all those people whose names are unknown but who are helping all the time. They said there are still a lot of refugees in the Kurdistan region and they still require the help of the international community.
The creators of the ‘N as Nazarenes ” will go to the Kurdistan Region in the second part of March, where they will shoot the rest of the document. The Office of the Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government declared its support in organizing the trip for the shooting crew. It will be possible to hear more stories of students and Christians in Iraq after the release of the documentary, which is planned to be shown on Polish television in the middle of this year.
