Review by kerekesbalazs

A lot of people have bad feelings about this film, because it was partially financed by the Hungarian government reigning between 1998 and 2002. As a result lot of critics argued that the money could have been spent on supporting more than one movies with lower budgets instead of just one. Many times the critiques had strong political flavours in them. The above mentioned things are important because I do not think that the rating given to the film by IMDb voters (who are most likely Hungarians) reflects the true quality of the film. It shows how important a strong ruler was in the middle ages and how he must have been approved by the nobility as well. The actual history told by the film proves that even without democracy how necessary it was for even a monarch to gain some kind of legitimacy, and how difficult it was somitimes to gain this legitimacy even amongst the narrow ruling class. It is certainly not amongst the best films I have ever seen, but it gives a pretty good view of the political intrigues of the era, and how difficult it was for Hungarians to adopt Christianity even though they did not have any viable alternatives. I would recommend it mostly for Hungarians and/or those interested in Hungarian or at least Central-Eastern European history from the Middle Ages.