Stara basn. Kiedy slonce bylo bogiem

This could be interesting, historical film if made properly, but it definitely isn't. Oldest polish legend is base of original novel. But you see not much of it in this movie and it's not so easy to understand even for polish who know original. Sadly weakest side is actors' play. This is typical curse of every high-budget (as for polish movies - 10-15 mln.$). Best actors don't try to be professional but they think that this is just prize for being best-known people in polish entertainment, so no need to put any effort if you paid part of cast already. Overall - weak, boring and acted poorly. It looks like C-class US production. 2/10. If you want some interesting polish production look for lower budget, but much better made movies.

Stara Basn means "The Old Tale" in Polish. Indeed this is a mixture of Polish folklore and history brought to the big screen!

Set in the 9th Century...the movie depicts an exciting tale of love, betrayal, death...and action...plenty of it!

At 1 hr 45 mins long the pace is just right and never tires. The story itself is relatively easy to understand...even for a non Polish speaker like myself! This is mainly thanks to the gorgeous visuals...which really speak for themselves.

This movie has anything and is definetly highly recommended. Its the most polished, well crafted and enjoyable Polish film that I have seen in a long time!

One note of caution though: this film is highly graphic! You don't get the Hollywood clean cut treatment. So when heads roll, swords thrust into flesh and druids enact an orgy...you see EVERYTHING!!!

Still that's what it was like back then!!!

This is a Polish film which is all about a ruthless despot's attempts to crush a rebel army by enlisting the help of the Vikings. I'm not quite sure how historically accurate this is, but frankly who cares? It may not be a Hollywood spectacular but the hacking and slashing were enough to divert my attention and the complex plot is not unlike that great TV show, Game Of Thrones. It does come with subtitles intact though, so those dimwits who can't read and watch simultaneously can look elsewhere. Everyone else will probably enjoy a decent throwback to when our leaders were corrupt, life was cheap and barbarism ruled the day. Hmm... Maybe not that much of a throwback after all... 6/10

Whle watching this film I've grown to respect Hollywood much more. The thing is American films are usually professionally made (well, at least those which reach me here in Ukraine). Even if the idea is the simplest one possible, the films are still watchable and entertaining (well most of them). They know their stuff and at least don't make the simplest mistakes. This film done by the guru of polish cinema looked amateurish. The acting was rather poor. The lead roles often overplayed their emotions. I was constantly under the impression that most scenes took just one take and the director just didn't bother and was like "meh, it will do". The secondary role actors were even worse. Most of them looked like they are relatives of the production crew or were just random people from the street. The story never got me involved, it's just tedious. But there wasn't much to it anyway. Maybe the actors were so bad because of it, they just didn't understand what they are supposed to act. The characters have no depth and relations between them never get going. And the CGIs... 2003, two years after Shrek we get this kind of stuff?.. So the conclusion: there is no life in this film, it feels cheesy and uninspiring.

It will always puzzle me how can you make such a bad movie when you employ such great number of top Polish actors. I don't really know where to start...Actors (especially females) were bad and stiff. Women wore full make up and some of the Popiel's men seemed to have something that looked like a sabre to me, as a weapon. Shame. there was a great potential there. and with movies and TV series placed in medieval world today this could be another interesting addition to the genre. for Zebrowski this is another poor attempt at warrior based story. but as with The Witcher, this attempt is just abysmal. The same goes for Olbrychski. However, he doesn't really have to impress anyone at this stage of his career.