Why are there no big cats and elephants in North Africa today?

All of the following images and shots are created by Faber Courtial

Rome Backstage

The Untold Story

The cruellest and largest spectacles in history took place in the heart of ancient Rome. The Colosseum, epitome of Roman entertainment culture, reveals shocking parallels to our modern craving for sensation.

With enormous financial and logistical effort, the Roman state brought the most exotic animals from all parts of the empire to the eternal city – at any cost. This hunt for ever more spectacular shows led to the first massive extermination of entire animal populations and nearly to the collapse of the state budget.

Amid this brutal reality, our protagonist grows up, isolated from the outside world, in the labyrinth beneath the arena. His journey takes him through late antique Rome and further to the farthest corners of the known world.

For the first time, this story reveals the ancient backstage world with an authenticity and level of detail previously impossible. It offers a unique insight into an era where entertainment and cruelty were inextricably linked.

The Colosseum is filled with 50,000 people.

an intricate network of 126 elevators and 30 ramps beneath.

Nearly the entire floor of the arena opens up in a single moment.

In a breathtaking moment, the Colosseum’s entire arena floor splits open, and as if released from the underworld itself, a menagerie of exotic animals floods the arena.

Simultaneously in the depths of the hypogeum beneath the arena:

Cages clang open and fierce predators prowl between narrow guardrails, advancing towards ramps that will thrust them directly into the arena above.

The crucial moment arrives: trapdoors in the arena floor slide open, and blinding sunlight floods the elevator shafts, momentarily dazzling the beasts as they surge upward from the shadows of the hypogeum into the roaring amphitheater.

For the first time: the complete reconstruction of the Colosseum

The morning’s spectacle unfolds with beasts: as dawn breaks, it’s the exotic animals that first emerge from the hypogeum, setting the stage for the day’s grand events.

the midday hour brings forth the grim spectacle of executions, marking a somber transition in the day’s proceedings.

the afternoon brings forth the gladiators.

This schedule is ritualized, yet the show itself constantly demands new choreographies, sensations, and ever-increasing spectacles and superlatives.

A mirror of our modern media world, where sensations and spectacular displays generate clicks, likes, and attention.

Where reality TV, viral videos, and social media employ the same mechanisms.

Even today, virtual realities, video games, and immersive media offer similar opportunities for escapism.

The hunger for more

the show must go on…

Hundreds of thousands of animals are transported to Rome

Crocodiles, rhinoceroses, hippos, and giraffes from southern Egypt; gazelles, antelopes, jackals, ostriches, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, panthers, and elephants from North Africa; bears from Morocco’s Atlas Mountains; tigers from India…

At the Colosseum’s inauguration alone, 9,000 animals were killed.

Later, Emperor Trajan had 11,000 animals slaughtered just to celebrate his victories over the Dacians.

A whole industry emerged, tasked with bringing the most exotic animals from the farthest reaches of an empire to its capital,

regardless of the cost to the state treasury.

The hunt for and transport of exotic animals led to the extinction and drastic reduction of many species in North Africa and the Middle East.

The Narrator

Raised as a slave in the isolated underworld of the arena…

…he experiences the city outside the Colosseum like an explorer from another world…

…And as a hunter, the farthest reaches of the empire

Why this project

The first truly authentic portrayal of one of the most fascinating and profound chapters in history.

A hitherto barely explored and hidden world: The show business of ancient Rome

Faber Courtial

and the reconstruction of a bizarre world

Faber Courtial has created the most elaborate model of Rome to date, including the world’s most complete reconstruction of the Colosseum.

Faber Courtial’s Rome forms the backdrop

for the drama series “Those About to Die”

Faber Courtial collaborates with renowned institutions and television networks such as ZDF, Arte, and the BBC. Numerous awards and accolades underscore their outstanding position in the industry.

It’s time to tell this story.