Vlad el Empalador

I enjoy watching historical dramas and action films. I knew immediately when I saw Vlad on the screen in the opening of the film that I rented a real "turkey"... pun intended. So obviously Turkish propaganda. Oh, well...I guess I'll watch it tonight, maybe it'll put me to sleep or give me a laugh. On the plus side, their are some very handsome actors, so that helps a bit, haha! I guess if you're Turkish you might enjoy this film, otherwise I would pass.

Neo-ottoman propaganda movie where Turkish invaders are the good guys and Romanians who defend their own country are the bad guys. It looks good though and if you can forget about its complete historical inaccuracy it's an enjoyable movie.

Fantasy portrayal of history without logic in Bollywood style without essence and with poor acting.

After bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire by conquering Constantinopole in 1453 the Ottoman Empire in Mehmed The Conqueror (El Fatih) time controlled an area of over 1 million sqare killometers with huge millitary assets. In the movie the Empire is portraited as the ... underdog "bullied" by the small vassal state of Wallachia. It's insulting in terms of both logic and historical facts. In documented history records the Ottomans were controlling vassal rullers by keeping young foreign princes at the Ottoman court, as a measure of inssurance. This was also the case for Vlad, the ruller of Wallachia who had his share of revenge after spending his childehood as a prisoner in sultn Murad II court ( Murad was Mehmed father).

Eventough it is really meaningless on one hand, on the other hand it was quite interesting. What makes this movie unique is about the Tengri belief. Turks believed in single god even before Islam. God was called the god of the skies and all universe as his creation. This movie is nothing even close to todays beliefs and can not be categorized as a propaganda because they are not usual muslims. They do magic, they pray as shamans, they combine Islam with Tengri which may be categorized as being close to Alevi belief in Turkey which todays ruling party hates. So, I think this is a fantasy movie which has no meaning other than showing some blood and some Tengri. And probably if the guys were named as Vikings, the movie may have been more meaningful :).

I guess one has to be Turkish to fully enjoy this movie 😏 The story had potential for a lot more but sadly it was a big disappointment.