The Pagan Queen (2010)

A controversial film about the end of the old pagan world in central Europe, THE PAGAN QUEEN is based on the Czech legend of Libuse, the Slavic queen of 8th century Bohemia. Gifted with supernatural powers, a visionary and a seer, this extraordinary woman was able to see the future and in a turbulent time of cultural change founded the modern city of Prague. Libuse ruled as a woman over the tribes of the region with her two beautiful sisters Kazi and Teta and an army of women under the command of her best friend, the Amazon Vlasta. When the peaceful community of farmers is under attack by raiders and split into different parties of power hungry landowners, Libuse is forced into marriage by her own people. Desperate she elects her long time lover, the charismatic ploughman Premysl, to become her husband and king. Soon Premyl takes over the new kingdom and rules with an iron fist, enslaving the formerly free farmers. But Libuse's friend Vlasta, who is secretly in love with her, refuses to follow the new leader and with her maiden army declares war on the men of Bohemia. The film is based on the 18th and 19th century romantic German fairy tales and plays by Johann Karl Musaeus, Clemens Brentano and Franz Grillparzer who emphasize the supernatural elements of the story and combine that with psychology and philosophy. This approach caused a massive scandal in the Czech Republic during the theatrical run of the film.With the addition of lesbians.It's way too slow to be interesting and anyone who gave this a rave review worked on the film.

This is a movie my brother likes. I decided to sit down and watch this knowing full well of it's reputation here on IMDb. I have absolutely no idea of the Czech legend it was based on so I am not going to bring that up as a complaint.The plot is that a king dies and one of his three daughters ends up being queen. This one can also see the future (Why is this never explained?). She whores herself (There really is no better word for it) at a peasant who saved her life and gets him to become king once a war starts. Completely forgetting about the war (??????????????) the king starts ruling the country with an iron fist (Which when we see the only settings being caves, forests and peasant houses - yes even the castle looks exactly the same as a farm).So the plot is pretty disjointed (but it's not like Monster A-Go Go where you ask yourself if there was a plot to begin with) to the extent that I didn't really know what these people were doing or what they were aiming for. The King's goal (See! I don't even remember his name!) seems clear enough, grow as a country and crush his opposition. That was all I got for the movie in terms of goals.The next point. What were the character's names? I know Libuse but... That's all. I didn't know what any other person's name was. The 2 minute exposition at the beginning might have said them but of all the things we don't have to rely on THAT.Another thing the villain of this piece has to be one of the weakest villains in cinema. I mean, worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space. I know I can't take that back but it's true the villain in Plan 9 From Outer Space was stronger.Now onto the positives. The Acting was decent from some people, even if they are also forgettable. The Cinematography was not bad (even if they have about 4 locations). There was a small hint that they could have been trying something with the premise.So if you want to sit down and watch a historical drama with some kind of love relationship... watch the three hour cut of Arn instead. That had a plot, character development, DEVELOPMENT, good focus and when they changed it, they did it right. Go watch that instead.

I can't imagine anyone will ever make a better movie than this about the legendary founding of the city of Prague. That's right, Prague. Not Paris. Not London. Not Berlin. The Pagan Queen purports to tell the Dark Ages origins of Prague. Weirdly, though, it's not a foreign language film. It was made in the Czech Republic but everybody's speaking English, and largely unaccented English at that. This also isn't some trashy romp with topless chicks running around and a bunch of badly staged battle scenes that look like kids playing in the backyard with Nerf swords. There is some nudity and violence here but this is, more or less, a well intentioned effort at bringing a mythic page of Czech history to life and to his credit, co-writer/director Constantin Werner does a decent job of it.Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this is a great movie or even a very good one. However, I have seen motion pictures so awful they would make you doubt the existence of a kind and loving God. The Pagan Queen has an above average cast, some very solid production values given its screamingly obvious budget limitations and is directed with a competent eye. The writing here is the weakest link, with a plot that should have dispensed with several side characters and their stories while imbuing either more realism or more imagination to it's main focus, but everything makes some kind of sense and I can admire the narrative ambition of the script. It feels like Werner clung a little to tightly to the legend when he should have concentrated on telling the best tale he could.Libuse (Winter Ave Zoli) is a seer in 700 AD central Europe. When her father dies, she is elevated to the council of her kingdom and proves herself so wise and inspiring a leader that she is named queen. As she is pressured to marry, she instead carries on a secret affair with a lowly plowman named Premysi (Csaba Lucas) and sets her people to mining the great wealth out of their land. A dispute between miners and farmers eventually escalates to the point where Libuse must take a husband to calm things down and she manipulates a marriage to Premysi, who proves to be a hard and ruthless king. Eventually, a childhood friend of Libuse's (Lea Mornar) raises an army of women warriors in rebellion against Premysi and becomes another bloody foundation stone in the great city that Libuse dreams and Premysi sets about to create. There's also a whole subplot about Libuse's sisters (Vera Filatova and Veronika Bellova) and how they symbolize the decline of the "old ways" and the rise of Christian modernity.Winter Ave Zoli is fine as Libuse, beautiful and capable of more depth than you might expect. Csaba Lucas gives a one note performance but hits that note exactly right. Lea Mornar is the standout here and gives real spirit to her part, though it's somewhat offset by her having an accent more pronounced than the rest of the cast put together. Frankly, there's no one on screen here that makes you think they got their role through some exchange of cash or sexual favors.While there's an amateurish edge to the script, Werner did quite a job of making a film that looks good with little spent. The costumes and props look nice and everything is lit well and sounds clear. The sets are largely forest clearings and what appears to be medieval tourist attractions rented out for a day or two, but The Pagan Queen looks like a legitimate film and not something high school kids did with their camera phones over spring break.With some romance, political intrigue, environmental moralizing and plenty of attractive actresses, The Pagan Queen is almost good enough to recommend. The story is just weak enough and the subject matter handled too demurely for that. What I can say is there's a lot of crap out there far worse than this movie. And if you've got a hankering to know the mysterious beginnings of Prague, you now know where to look.

I saw this film at the Estepona Fantastic Film Festival where it won an award. It is a pleasantly poetic and low key indie drama set in the dark ages which is very unusual for that kind of genre. It's like Jim Jarmusch or David Lynch directing a historic film. The film feels very real but is also stylized and has a lot of contemporary themes and elements. There is a lesbian love story in it as well as ideas about the destruction of nature and the end of the old Pagan religions who were one with nature. The camera work and the music is extremely beautiful. The acting is good, mostly from the female cast who clearly own the movie. Lea Mornar as the lesbian warrior girl steals the show but the lead, Winter Ave Zoli is very good as well. If you have an opportunity watch this film, it's edgy and very different than any film I know about the dark ages.