Anno Domini 1573 (1975)
Europe in second half of 16th century was very rough place to live. Peasants of Slovenia and Croatia had even rougher times because of the constant threat of Turk raids and being taxed to death in order to provide defence against the Turks. But, the worst things were arrogant local feudal lords led by Franjo Tahi who were oppresing the common folk. All that led to the great peasant revolt of 1573. The movie is made for the 400th anniversary of the event.
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No acting, no screenplay, no tempo nor suspense in the progression of the story. It's a mix of drama and comedy that, after many pointless digressions, goes nowhere but to the obvious "epic" battle (it was time) and final doom of the unpalatable hero. Yet there is a little tail that's wagging around with the two youngsters who survived the slaughter, (and two hours of acting) nobody knows how. Life must go on, that seems to be the final likely message, the last banality after many. If production years were right one could say "Seljacka buna 1573" aka "Anno domini 1573" to be an hybrid between the Italian "L'Armata Brancaleone" and the American "Braveheart", botched and barren anyway, and with an amateurish flavor.
This is a story about the uprising of peasants in Croatia in the XVI century. It is also described in August enoa's novel of the same title, but I'm not sure if the movie used the book as a source.I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the way this movie was made. Much attention is paid to details, the atmosphere (very creepy most of the time), but also there are scenes that testify of the director's own style.The last half hour is reminiscent of "Braveheart"; if you get the chance to see this you should pay attention. There is even a very cruel torture scene at the end, and as I read on Wikipedia it was even more terrible in the reality.There are some traces of the communist ideology inserted into the movie, however everything works quite well. And a warning: the characters speak a dialect of the Croatian language, so without subtitles it is hard to understand it.