The Hittites: A Civilization that Changed the World

The documentary tells the history of the Hittite empire. The Hittites built a powerful state in the Near East of their time. The film shows the rise of that state and how it was ordered. The account moves forward through expert testimony. Archaeologists and historians explain the findings. Dramatic reenactments come in between. Visual effects rebuild the structures of the period. One of the set pieces of the film is the battle of Kadesh. That battle was fought against the army of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. The scene is brought to the screen as a large recreation. What the account rests on is what the Hittites wrote themselves. The texts were written on clay tablets. The tablets were excavated and deciphered in the twentieth century. Words set down three and a half thousand years ago are heard again. The narrator of the hundred and twenty minute documentary is Jeremy Irons. It is a Turkish production Tolga Örnek finished in 2003.