Students and staff at Trinity College Dublin have produced the world's first film in the ancient - and dead - Sumerian language.
'Dumuzi's Dream and Dumuzi's Demons' is a dramatisation of a mythological poem preserved on 4,000-year-old cuneiform clay tablets excavated in modern-day Iraq.
It tells the story of how Dumuzi, a Sumerian shepherd god, repeatedly escapes from underworld demons, until they finally catch him for good.
The 20-minute film was shot in Dublin's Phoenix Park and was directed and produced by Professor Martin Worthington from Trinity's School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies.
"Sumerian was spoken in the south of ancient Iraq. It is probably the world's first written language and died out around 2000 BCE. However, the ancient Babylonians kept it alive as a learned and liturgical language, just as today many people do with Latin," explained Professor Worthington.
Eighteen students participated in the production, some as part of their formal studies, and others just for fun.
Olivia Romao, who as well as studying Music in Trinity is also a professional actress, said taking a module in Sumerian helped her to prepare for her role as Dumuzi’s sister Ĝeštinana.
"It was experimental and quirky. But I had six months of learning the language so I would feel like I could do the movie. The whole experience was awesome for me because of that."
In comparison, English/Classics student Gwenhwyfar Ferch Rhys, who played Dumuzi, had never studied the language.
"I was just memorising strings of sounds. But to be speaking the original lines, rather than a translation, was important because of the role poetry and literature played in Sumerian culture," she said.
The film is now freely available on YouTube. It has subtitles in 21 languages, including Irish.
A free public screening will take place this evening in Trinity, followed by a Q&A with the actors and production team.
Professor Worthington, who acted as narrator, said: "We hope people will be curious. There might be people who didn't even know Sumerian existed. If this film puts it on their radar and alerts them to the fascination of an entire academic discipline, then we've produced something we think is useful."
Watch our video for more on this new film in an ancient language
