''Once Upon a Time in Mesopotamia'' (; ) is a 1998 French documentary film adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name by French

Assyriologist Assyriology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logy, -logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cune ...

Jean Bottéro Jean Bottéro (30 August 1914 – 15 December 2007) was a French historian born in Vallauris. He was a major Assyriologist, a renowned expert on the Ancient Near East and director of the Assyriology Chair at the École pratique des hautes étud ...

and archaeologist Marie-Joseph Stève. Directed by

Jean-Claude Lubtchansky Jean-Claude Lubtchansky (2 December 1930 – 14 October 2020) was a French film editor, documentary and television director. Career Best known as a documentary filmmaker, Jean-Claude Lubtchansky was the assistant director of two 1958 documenta ...

who also co-wrote the screenplay, and co-produced by Trans Europe Film, La Sept-Arte,

Éditions Gallimard Éditions Gallimard (), formerly Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (1911–1919) and Librairie Gallimard (1919–1961), is one of the leading French book publishers. In 2003, it and its subsidiaries published 1,418 titles. Founded by G ...

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

and

La Cinquième France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring nonfiction and educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowl ...

, with

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

narration by French actors

François Marthouret François Marthouret (born 12 September 1943) is a French actor. He is best known for playing Paul Lescaut in the French police drama series ''Julie Lescaut ''Julie Lescaut'' is a French police television series created by Alexis Lecaye. It ...

, and the director, the documentary is structured like an adventure film, taking viewers into the world of the first discoverers, epigraphists and Assyriologists who revealed

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n archaeology to the modern world. The film was broadcast on

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

on 30 May 1998, as part of the channel's television programme ''

The Human Adventure ''The Human Adventure'' is a game written by William F. Denman, Jr. and published by Med Systems Software in 1980 for the TRS-80 and Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufac ...

'', and rebroadcast on

on 4 and 5 June of the same year. In addition to German dubbing, the documentary has been subtitled into English and Spanish, and released on DVD by Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC).

Synopsis

, the land between two rivers, whose brilliant civilisation began to develop 5000 years ago, apart from the reports of some ancient Greek and Roman chroniclers, it existed only as a biblical legend. It is the oldest and longest civilisation, both for the influence it exerted on the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

and on the

Greek world In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Ro ...

as for its contribution to the material and spiritual development of humanity, and oddly the most poorly known to the general public. Today, however, many—albeit scattered—archaeological finds and various sites provide an impressive insight into the richness of this civilisation that invented writing and produced the first scientific systems and literary works. The artefacts kept in various European museums, the archaeological sites and the excavations themselves are documented on the basis of archive material, that is, photos, watercolours, drawings and films. Expedition reports and images of life in Mesopotamia before the first Iraq war illustrating the human adventure of reconstructing a lost civilisation.

Production

The documentary was partially shot in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

, in the land of clay and reed between the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

and

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

rivers A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

The book

The book , on which the film is based, is an

illustrated An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

on Mesopotamian archaeology, published in pocket format by

on 4 November 1993. Co-written by French

and biblicist

, and his research companion, an archaeologist and Dominican friar Marie-Joseph Stève, the work is the volume in the encyclopaedic

collection Collection or Collections may refer to: Computing * Collection (abstract data type), the abstract concept of collections in computer science * Collection (linking), the act of linkage editing in computing * Garbage collection (computing), autom ...

Découvertes Gallimard (, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an Collection (publishing), editorial collection of Book illustration, illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in Pocket edition, ...

', and part of the collection's series. That is to say, here the subject is the rediscovery of Mesopotamian civilisation, the

decipherment of cuneiform The decipherment of cuneiform began with the decipherment of Old Persian cuneiform between 1802 and 1836. The first cuneiform inscriptions published in modern times were copied from the Achaemenid royal inscriptions in the ruins of Persepolis, wi ...

, and the study of archaeological sites, objects and documents discovered in the region, from the late eighteenth century onwards ( history of Assyriology), but not the history of this civilisation. According to the tradition of 'Découvertes', which is based on an abundant pictorial documentation and a way of bringing together visual documents and texts, enhanced by printing on coated paper; in other words, 'genuine monographs, published like art books'. While many of the French titles from the collection make it into English, this book has never been translated.

References

External links

*
''Il était une fois la Mésopotamie'' (the film)
on CNC Images de la culture
''Il était une fois la Mésopotamie'' (the book)
at

{{Portal bar, Civilizations, Iraq, Writing, Television, Literature, France 1998 documentary films 1998 television films French documentary television films Documentary films about Iraq Films based on non-fiction books Films shot in Iraq Découvertes Gallimard 1993 non-fiction books Archaeology books Books about the ancient Near East Mesopotamia 1990s French films