An Original Animated Feature
70,000 Years · Five Civilizations · One Question
Before we named the heavens, before we built the temples —
we looked up. And we wondered.
Depicted
Takemikazuchi, god of thunder and the sword, faces Takeminakata, god of wind, water and war — two Shinto deities locked in a contest over who shall rule the earth. One of five civilizations explored in Before the Gods.
The Film
Before the Gods is an adult animated feature spanning 70,000 years of human history — an epic meditation on the oldest question our species has ever asked: Why are we here?
Moving across five civilizations and five distinct visual worlds, the film traces the emergence of religious belief not as doctrine, but as raw human need — born from grief, wonder, fear, and love. From the first burial rites in a prehistoric cave to the burning of ancient temples, these are the moments before the myths solidified, before the priests arrived, before anyone knew what to call the divine.
This is prestige animation for the audience that watches Flee, reads Yuval Noah Harari, and believes a drawn line can contain multitudes. It is not a children's film. It is a film about all of us — where we came from, and what we reach for in the dark.
Douglas
Anthony
Olear
Writer
Writer's Statement
"I grew up in a house divided — my mother, a woman of deep and unshakeable faith; my father, a quiet agnostic. I have lived between those two worlds my entire life. This film is what that feels like."
I was raised Catholic — my mother's faith, practised with real devotion — and grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, surrounded by friends whose rituals and relationship with God were entirely different from my own. And yet when you stripped it back, we wanted the same things. Kindness. Meaning. Answers. Every civilization in human history has looked at the sky and reached for something beyond themselves — and yet each tradition, so certain of its own truth, so often dismisses the stories of others that could be called equally miraculous, equally beautiful.
That paradox lives in me. I am deeply spiritual and deeply practical — I have sat with science and I have sat with mystery, and I am not sure the two are as far apart as we pretend. What I am certain of is that religion has given the world its greatest acts of compassion, and has been weaponised to justify its worst. Knowledge, I believe, is the only honest response to that danger.
I want Before the Gods to work the way David McCullough's books work — the way John Adams and Truman made me realise that history is only boring when it's told badly. I want it to be a film a child can follow and an adult cannot stop thinking about. I want the audience transported — not lectured.
I trained as an actor at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York City. Our class was the United Nations — Iranian, Israeli, Moroccan, Icelandic, Italian, Indian, German, Filipino, Australian. Later, as a cast member on The Wire — widely considered the greatest television drama of the 21st century, and a predominantly African-American ensemble — I learned the same lesson again. No matter what was happening in the world outside, no matter what colour you were, no matter what god you prayed to — we never lost our love or our dignity for each other. That classroom, that set, that experience — that is the reason I believe this film is possible. And necessary.
The World of the Film
From the first fire on the African savanna to a hospital room beneath the Milky Way — the visual world of Before the Gods.
Act One · 70,000 BCE · East Africa
Kael, Duma & the Tribe
The lion is down. But Kael looks up — something is coming. Dark. Low. Humming.
Act One · 70,000 BCE · East Africa
The First Question
Before language had words for it — the reaching.
Act Two · Mesopotamia · 3,000 BCE
Ninhursag — The Mother Goddess
She who gives life to all things. The great mother of gods and men — older than memory, present at every birth.
Act Two · Mesopotamia · 3,000 BCE
Enlil — God of Storm & Dominion
The giant appears to Lidu in a dream. The gods of Mesopotamia did not come in peace.
Act Two · Mesopotamia · 3,000 BCE
Ishtar — Goddess of Love & War
Babylon at her back. A lion at her feet. The first goddess of desire — and of destruction.
Act Two · Mesopotamia · 3,000 BCE
Marduk & the Dragon Mushhushshu
Tobias's interpretation of Marduk — king of the Babylonian gods, creator of the world, too vast and too ancient to speak directly to mortals. Mushhushshu, the dragon, speaks for him. The reality was for over two thousand years, people loved and prayed to him.
Act Three · Babylon · 600 BCE
Ezra & Tobias
By candlelight, in exile, a people write down everything they remember — so they will not forget who they are.
Act Three · Babylon · 600 BCE
Tobias & Niai
Babylon behind them. Two worlds, two faiths, one moment — holding on.
Act Three · Nazareth · c. 20 CE
The Tekton's Workshop
Before the sermon. Before the miracle. A young man works stone in the morning light — and his mother watches from the doorway.
Vignette · Persia · c. 500 BCE
The Zoroastrian Priest
His city burns behind him. He holds the sacred flame and does not look back. The fire is all that matters now.
Vignette · Shinto · Japan
Takemikazuchi & Takeminakata
Two gods face each other across the primordial sea — and fight for the right to rule the earth.
Vignette · Tokyo · Present Day
Ryōgoku Kokugikan — The Salt Throw
Just as the god Takeminakata threw salt in the air — the same gesture. The same purpose. Purifying and driving out what should not remain.
Vignette · Celtic Britain · c. 100 BCE
The Druid & His Apprentice
Under the sacred oak, beneath the moon — the old knowledge passes from one pair of hands to another.
Vignette · Yucatán · 1562 CE
The Burning of the Codices
Bishop Diego de Landa orders the burning of every Mayan book. One man holds the last pages — and watches everything his people knew turn to ash.
Vignette · Athens · c. 400 BCE
Athena — The Parthenon
An old woman makes her offering to a goddess forty feet tall. Faith does not require equality — only devotion.
Present Day
Theo & Grandma
A modern hospital room. The Milky Way through the window. Theo stands there, looking up at the same stars — asking the same question that Kael asked 70,000 years ago.
Contact
Before the Gods is currently in development. We welcome conversations with financiers, co-production partners, festivals, and press.
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