Il Primo Re - The First King: Birth of an Empire (2019 Film)

Il Primo Re (also known as Romulus & Remus: The First King), is a 2019 Italian historical drama film directed by Matteo Rovere. Written by Filippo Gravino, Francesca Manieri, Matteo Rovere. Photography by Daniele Ciprì, Music by Andrea Farri. Audio in proto-italic language with English subtitles.

Set before the founding of Rome in 750 BC, Romulus and Remus, two shepherds and loyal brothers, end up taking part to a journey that will lead one of them to be the founder of the greatest nation ever seen.

The film portrays a struggle between power and pietas, as represented by the two brothers. Ultimately, power is shown to become order only when submitted to the will of the gods. The director had no intention to comment on contemporary politics, but said that the myth's theme of love and hubris "talks to us through symbols that we can interpret in the light of our current time".

All spoken dialogue is in proto-italic language, reconstructed by a group of semiologists thanks to epigraphs, tombs and objects that were contemporary to the time period which Romulus and Remus were imagined to have lived. The idea to make the film in archaic Latin came from a desire to make the characters sound ancestral, which would help the audience to attune themselves to the story. The language was created by a team from the Sapienza University of Rome led by professor Donatella Gentili. The team studied archaic Latin and "fleshed it out" with help from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language.

The film was shot entirely with natural light and on location, Lazio region (Wood of Foglino and the municipalities of Nettuno, Viterbo and Manziana.) VFX is used at minimum. The only exception is the big opening sequence. Two visual influences were the films Valhalla Rising (2009) and Apocalypto (2006).