Watch: Trinity filmmakers release world's first Sumerian language movie

'Dumuzi's Dream and Dumuzi's Demons' is directoed and produced by Professor Martin Worthington, who provided Babylonian translations for Marvel Studios’ ‘Eternals’. File photo: Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography 2021

Filmmakers at Trinity College Dublin have banded together to release a world’s first: a film performed entirely in the ancient and dead language of Sumerian.

Directed and produced by Professor Martin Worthington from the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, and starring 4th-year students Olivia Romao and Gwenhwyfar Ferch Rhys, the 20-minute film was posted to YouTube on Thursday.

Dumuzi's Dream and Dumuzi's Demons features the titular Sumerian shepherd god who repeatedly escapes from underworld demons before they finally catch up with him.

It follows, word for word, a mythological poem known today as Dumuzi’s Dream. It is preserved on cuneiform clay tablets excavated in modern-day Iraq, and kept in museums across the world. On YouTube, subtitles are available in over 25 languages, including Irish.

“Sumerian was spoken in the south of ancient Iraq,” Mr Worthington explained. “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.” 

The production involved 18 students telling the story in a 4,000-year-old language, with Dublin’s Phoenix Park serving as a very recognisable backdrop to the film. He said, while it is an ancient story, modern audiences will find the story “gripping and relatable”.

“To be able to access, via ancient Sumerian, some of the oldest recorded stories in the world is a huge opportunity to reflect on a different world but also on ourselves,” he added.

The film was funded by Trinity, the Philological Society, the CAENO Foundation, the Thriplow Charitable Trust, and the European Research Council.

Mr Worthington previously hit the headlines after he conducted the translations into Babylonian for the Marvel superhero blockbuster Eternals, which starred Barry Keoghan and Angelina Jolie.

“I’m so pleased these translations were done by someone at Trinity College Dublin, which was the alma mater of Edward Hincks, the Irish clergyman who through utter brilliance first deciphered Babylonian cuneiform back in the 19th century,” he said at the time.