Return to Babylon
A Family in Search of Identity(ies)
A film by Marie Dault, Sémiramis Ide,
and Sébastien Daycard-Heid
Directed by Sébastien Daycard-Heid
Fri Dec 19 at 8:00 pm Tickets: $25
A 52 minute documentary.
Sémiramis is French, and Eastern Christian, and Assyro-Chaldean. In the Val-d’Oise region, this community, originally from Turkey and Iraq, has lived since the 1980s in a rhythm marked by weddings, church services, and family meals.
Shaped by the exile of their parents and the persecution their community faced under the Turkish dictatorship and Daesh, Sémiramis nurtures her roots in Assyrian civilization, originating from Mesopotamia. But the puzzle of her history no longer fits together as it once did.
Gradually, the elders are disappearing, taking with them an identity and culture that is 6,000 years old.
How can this fracture be repaired, and this heritage preserved? Should they consider staying or returning to their ancestral homeland, now that peace has returned? Can one go back after decades of conflict? Can they rebuild and start anew to live in peace with themselves and others?
“Return to Babylon” is a road movie from Sarcelles to Erbil, following Sémiramis and her family on a journey that leads them to question their future in France and the fate of their community in the Middle East.
KTO is a Catholic media outlet, both a television channel and an online platform, created in 1999. The channel is available on TV boxes in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and worldwide via satellite.
Yes Sir Films is an award-winning production company (Chaffanjon, Green Awards, Visa pour I’Image) known for its documentaries. This film is a spin-off of the documentary Sarcellespolis released in 2015.
L’OEuvre d’Orient has been supporting Eastern Christians for 170 years across 23 countries in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, Eastern Eurpoe, and India.