Damascus, SANA- Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums announced that The Oath of Cyriac movie was awarded by the Jury at the 8th edition of the Cardiff International Film Festival (United Kingdom) by winning an Honorable Mention in Best Documentary Category.
The film, directed by Olivier Bourgeois and co-produced by Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums and the Syrian Trust for Development, is a feature docudrama based on a breathtaking true story that will challenge your vision of archaeologists.
In the Heat of the Most Violent Conflict of the Decade:
As the war rages around them, a small group of archaeologists, museum curators and attendants struggle to preserve the monumental collections of antiquities at the Aleppo National Museum during the Syrian conflict. For years, these women and men will bid farewell to their families every morning before heading to the museum under a hail of shells, facing sniper fire, often sleeping on the ground of the museum for several days in an attempt to accomplish their mission. Without electricity, without water, without means, they empty the showcases, pack antiques with pieces of clothing, dismantle false ceilings to protect them in makeshift boxes, build concrete walls to hide ancient statues from looters….
But in 2015, the Museum becomes a battle front line and the risk of seeing these treasures disappearing is greater every day: how to evacuate 50,000 artifacts in a besieged city? In this race against time, nothing is guaranteed, nothing is certain, the only certainty lies in one fact: if the museum’s collections are lost, a whole part of human history will disappear with them. «THE OATH OF CYRIAC » is the second opus of the « HERITAGE » trilogy.
The film has attained more than 17 awards at numerous international festivals, as well.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)