Angelina Jolie and Leonardo DiCaprio To Star In A Film About Sudan Ancient Civilization

allafrica.com: According to the General Manager of the Sudanese Antiquities and Museums Corporation, Dr. Abdelrahman Ali, film shooting has started a week ago at the National Museum and the Confluence of the White and Blue Niles in Khartoum. Anchors have then moved to the Dufufa, Jabal al-Barkal, al-Kuru and Old Dongola archeological sites in the Northern State and to the Bajrawiyya in the Nahr al-Neel State to film the Royal City at al-Nqa'a and al-Musawwarat.

All these locations are representative of the remains of the Kushite Kingdoms that reigned thousands of years before Christianity.

Jabal Al-Barkal was once the Capital City of the Kingdom of Meroe. So was the al-Naqa'a and al-Musawwarat. The latter is claimed to have been the cradle of the World's iron smelting and iron industry. For that reason contemporary archeologists choose to call it Birmingham of Sudan. A replica of an iron smelting plant has been built on site by a group of Western archeologists and engineers.

The National Museum in Khartoum houses artifacts of the Meroe kingdoms and other historical dynasties. The collection contains statues of kings and animals representing those times, among very interesting relics of Sudan history.

The State of Qatar will shoulder the film's funding in full. Quatar is also already funding the restoration of historical sites around the country with a view to bringing Sudan's ancient civilization to light and to beef up Sudan's tourist earnings.

The film will be translated into several languages and will be broadcast by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV Channel. Al-Jazeera says it is willing to give copies of the film for free to any TV channel that wishes to air it.