The Last Relic (1970)

Some mild spoilers ahead!Don't be fooled by all the Estonians who hold this film in such a high esteem -- this is a pretty average historical adventure story of the age. (Certainly this might have been a good opportunity to show the other nations the values of their history, culture and language but that is independent of artistic value.) Nothing very special in the fields of direction and cinematography; IMHO the songs are not that great either. (Maybe these sound better in the Russian version?) Fencing and other forms of bloodless fighting vary from decent to ridiculously bad. (Near the end, Gabriel's "fight" with the well-armed monastery guards is worse than Disney Zorro. The film's one whipping scene is much more realistic than the swordplay.) While the scenery is beautiful indeed, not much wildness in sight; I often had the impression that it was filmed in a very small and too well-kept park.The strongholds: first of all, Ingrid Andrina is extremely cute, in a decidedly not innocent way. She has a very suggestive way of eating mutton, which is indeed the sexy highlight of the movie. We also see her nipples -- in a not-erotic context, but still very unexpected from a Soviet production. She seems to really enjoy acting in this, too!Polan Bykov is superb (as always) in the role of the manipulative and very cynical priest.The freedom fighters: they do also pillage and rape, a very realistic touch when compared to the French-Italian productions of the age.

My usual searches and sources did not turn up this movie, but I'd love to watch it. There are selected clips of this available on to watch on a popular video site, but not the complete film. Amazon U.S./Canada/UK also do not list either The Last Relic or it's Estonian title, Viimne reliikvia, available for sale. Netflix and Blockbuster do not show it for rent. Any help in finding it would be appreciated. Thanks.Also, any help with finding international films not widely released in the United States would be much appreciated. With more international web friendships, I hear more and more about movies I don't have access to watch.

The movie is great, but half of it is far away from the book. They had the main point: Agnes has to marry von Mönnikhusen for the sacred bones to get back to the monastery; Agnes escapes with Gabriel; falls in love and so on. But those guys forgot that Agnes`s father is alive and HE asked Gabriel to became one of his men, not von Mönnikhusen. But: Ivo Shenckenberg is actually historical person and the war and rising against the masters are historical parts too. Outside the cameras: Ursula (Eve Kivi) knew to tell that Gabriel (Aleksandr Goloborodko) became a father at the moment they were shooting the scene where Gabriel was fastened up to the tree and one of Shenkenbergs men told him: "Sure, raisk!" (Die, sod!)

This might not seem like an outstanding film to an outsider, but it is a classic in its homeland. This is the story of how men and women fought for their freedom against higher power. The acting is great, the dialogue is classic material. This is most certainly the most often quoted piece in Estonia's history of film and for a reason. Watch it if you want to see a great film that has touched a whole nation without being too serious or too patriotic, but fun and careless among other things as well. This is as good as it gets.