The Assyrian came down

Inspired by Byron’s poem and by the destruction by ISIS of the stone winged bulls of Nineveh (moden Mosul) the multi disciplinary performance project focused on the story of the date juice. The date juice that was consumed under the watchful eyes of the stone Assyrian Winged Bull door guardians at Balthazzar’s Feast on the night before Nineveh fell. Thousands of years later, in 20th century Mosul, the date juice that was consumed in the ruins of Nineveh by Iraqi teenagers and families perched on the slowly mouldering Assyrian stone winged bulls, and finally in 2019 in defiance of the deliberate destruction of the winged bulls by ISIS, their reconstruction by sculptor Michael Rakowitz using Iraqi date juice cans and unveiled on the rain swept London’s Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth thousands of miles from Nineveh.

Strabo’s documentary film uses these links to explore the theme of continuity and destruction, interviews with the Mosul Eye who was under cover in ISIS controlled Mosul, and who, like an Iraqi Stefan Zweig recounts with poignant nostalgia the lost world of 1970s Mosul.

Inspired by Byron’s poem “The Destruction of Senacherib” and by the destruction by ISIS of the stone winged bulls of Nineveh (modern Mosul).