Dune 2: What do the symbols on Rebecca Ferguson’s face mean in the movie?

Each new world has its own new dialect invented for the occasion. From Star Wars to Lord of the Rings and of course Game of Thrones titles, many fantasy and sci-fi sagas and films have introduced the public to new languages ​​invented by their respective creators. And Dune, the book and movies, is clearly no exception to the rule.

Already in the first part we discovered the language of Chakob, the language of the Fremen created by Frank Herbert in his series of books of the same name, from which the films are inspired. And if the literary version of this dialect is a fusion of several existing languages, its cinematic version had to be developed. Thus, Dune’s Chuck and his vocabulary were enriched for the transition to the big screen.

For this, Denis Villeneuve called two experts: professional language developers David J. Peterson and Jesse Peterson. The first is at the head of, among other things, the languages ​​heard Game of Thrones, The Witcher or even The 100, while the other worked, among others, on series such as Motherland: Fort Salem, Shadow and Bone: The Grisha Saga. And together they created the film version of the Fremen language.

As David J. Peterson notes, it works Dune It was a little harder than work Game of Thrones, Frank Herbert It was inspired by different real languages, which made everything less structured.

“There are some words invented by Frank Herbert, some words and phrases inspired by Arabic. When we created this language, we had to include it, but we also had to create something that had its own structure.” he explained on AlloCiné’s microphone.

Starting with the source material and spreading it to film: that was the goal. And the language, which as such was not practiced in books, is now. So the duo created 750 words for the occasion, specifying that if we add a few prefixes and suffixes to some of them, we actually get an even bigger number.

What about the symbols on Jessica’s face?

After watching the second part of Dune, many people wondered what the symbols on the face of Paul’s mother (Timothe Chalamet) played by Rebecca Ferguson were and especially their meaning. So we asked David J. Peterson.

“Jessica’s face has a Fremen translation of “Litany Against Fear” written on it. So all the symbols you see on his face are from the Fremen language that we created“, he specifies.

fans Dune You know, the Litany Against Fear is a mantra, sacred formula or short prayer of the sisters of Bene Gesserit that we can hear Jessica say in the first part. The peculiarity of this litany is that it is not intended to eliminate fear, but rather to release it into the afflicted person to allow them to step back and overcome it.

The books read like this:

“I do not know fear, because fear kills the soul. Fear is a small death that leads to total destruction. I will face my fear. I will let it pass over me. And when he passes, I will turn my inner eye to his path. And where he has gone, nothing will remain. Only me.”

Listen to Jessica repeat this formula in this scene from the original version of the first episode:

So these very words were written on his face in the Fremen language—words loaded with meaning that defined his character and testified to his loyalty to the order of the Bene Gesserit to which he belonged.

Dune: Part II is currently playing at a theater near you.

Also discover the gaffes and minor errors of the first opus below: