The Pagan Queen

As someone who appreciates artistic cinematography, beautiful nature and the mystique of Europe's pagan past, this film should have been perfect for me since it has all of the above.

Clearly the film is an achievement based on its low budget. The topic is interesting and there is artistry in the execution, but the script, character development and acting are far below what most audiences consider to be professional standards, to the extent that it becomes difficult to follow.

Although many of the acters do not speak English as their native tongue, their accents and styles of speech make the movie fun. Filming was great, story was interesting, costumes cool and directing very good. A little unnecessary nudity, but still a good movie. The only weakness was trying to apply modern day values to an ancient story, and the ending was a little rushed, but still enjoyable to watch.

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.

Really quite frightening portrayal the patriarchy erasing native, matrifocal, spiritual pagan practices to justify war, death, and capitalism.

Have a beer and a bunch of friends over and treat yourself to a "Bad movie night".

The movie has bad acting (Czechs and Croatians speaking English with amazing accents), horrible stages (castle made of 5 pieces of wood), epic battles (10 people participating), nonsense plot (basically a butchered legend) and most of all highly artistic and full of pomp and what not... So bad, see it :D