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. (from The Irish Times: rte.ie/news/2025/1204/1…]

What’s really cool is that the film is available with various subtitles, including as Gaeilge, in Irish!

I’m very proud right now that Trinity’s my alma mater! :)