The Kurdistan Regional Government’s General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts mourns Syriac director Tahir Said Matti, who passed away at dawn on Friday 29 December 2023, as a result of a sudden heart attack that claimed his life in the Ankawa district of Erbil Governorate.
The Directorate, in the person of its General Director, its cadres, and its employees, extends its sincere condolences and sympathy to his family and loved ones. We pray to God to give rest to the deceased with his infinite mercy and to grant his family patience and solace.
The deceased is considered one of the most prominent Syriac directors who excelled in directing programs and documentaries, perhaps the most prominent of which is a documentary that recounts the plight of Christians displaced by ISIS in 2014.
It is worth noting that the late Tahir Said Matta began his television career on Al Iraqiya Channel – Nineveh in 2003, by presenting and directing documentary and heritage programs in towns inhabited by Christians, as well as another documentary that describes customs and traditions of the Yazidis. He also worked on the Ishtar satellite channel. Since 2005, he presented and directed a number of other works, including a documentary film about the Sabean Mandaeans and several programmes, most notably “A Ray of the Sun: From Bakhdida’s Past,” and many other documentary programmes.