(ZNDA: Paris) Lieurac Productions in France announced this week the completion of the English version of the documentary film, "The Last Assyrians", directed by Robert Alaux, which will be shown on 22 September in Kaslik, Lebanon, during the Symposium Syriacum gathering (see Surfers' Corner).

The film has received congratulatory notes from Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, Patriarche Emerite d'Antioche des Syriens, Prefetto della Congregatio Pro Ecclesiis Orientalibus and the Director of the Oriental Catholic Churches in Vatican. It has also received support from the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the Assyrian Democratic Organization; Mr. Yonnadam Kanna, former ChaldoAssyrians representative in the Iraqi Governing Council, and many other Assyrian scholars around the world.

According to Lierurac Productions, The Last Assyrians is a film documentary about "the Chaldo-Assyrians, one of the first people to convert to Christianity, still speaking Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. Members of the Chaldean, Assyrian, Syriac Orthodox or Syriac Catholic Churches, these refugees from Iraq, Turkey, Syria or Iran claim to be descendants of the people of ancient Mesopotamia. They were the first to evangelize China and Mongolia during the Golden Age of the Arabic Empire. In 1915, together with the Armenians, they were victims of
a genocide and many fled to Europe and the United States. There are still around one million Chaldo-Assyrians in Iraq today and the Assyrian Democratic Movement is working to help maintain their culture."

Film Director, Mr. Robert Alaux explains that: "Nowadays they are threatened by Islamic extremists, and fleeing toward Western countries where they run the risk of losing their culture and traditions that they have managed to preserve until now. Therefore, a knowledge of their past will help us understand their situation in the Middle East and the position and responsibility of the Western block towards them."