Stara basn. Kiedy slonce bylo bogiem

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.

Stara basn is a movie which has polarised many in the Sydney Polish community because of its sympathetic treatment of paganism in Poland.

The solar deity of the Poles and the Viking Odin are portrayed as very real and very powerful. The Polish solar deity is arguably similar to the Old Testament god in terms of expectations placed upon his followers and his vengeful nature. The climax of the movie ties in with a particular biblical episode and one of the Tarot Major Arcana cards - you'll know what I mean when you see it. Divination and sorcery are shown to be effective on a number of occasions.

While the modest budget of the movie precluded the dramatic special effects which we have grown used to, it has a rawness and honesty to it which I found absolutely irresistible.

I unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone with an interest in alternate spirituality and to those Poles wanting to get a feel for what life was like for their ancestors who followed a simple faith developed by Poles for Poles, before Christianity was forcibly imposed from without.

Tony Mierzwicki

Mr. Jerzy Hoffman proved with this film that he has been and still remains to be one of the three greatest Polish film directors, along with Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Kislowski. This film was made with the obvious attempt to repeat the winning formula of Hoffman's super hit Ogniem I Miezcem (1999)- the theme is again about Poland's heroic past, the actors are more or less the same - Polish mega stars Zebrowski, Olbrychski, Zborowski, as well as Ukrainian star Bohdan Stupka and the Russian rising female star Maria Aleksandrova (she is somehow connected with Aleksander Domogarow who played one of the main roles in Ogniem I Mieczem - so, the principle of inviting as many OiM stars as possible worked out). And it worked. The film tells about the pre-Christian history of Poland, where there were many disparate tribes, and one of those was ruled by a bloody and ferocious chief Popel. He didn't hesitate to murderer all his relatives and his nephew only to stay a chief as long as possible. He is the merciless ruler, but there are people who challenge him. Among them is the brave archer Ziemowit, and he is the one who openly fights against Popel. It is not necessary to retell the whole story here, only keep in mind that this is a breathtaking film, with bloody battles, viking raids, pagan rituals, some sweet love story, beautiful nature and excellent sense of humor. Do watch it.

Forget Brad Pitt as Achilles; Michal Zebrowski as Ziemowit the archer ROCKS! Seriously, the handsome, brooding Zebrowski is about as good as it gets when it comes to a costumed movie hero, and this vehicle is escapist fun from beginning to end. The setting is pre-Christian Poland, where the rustic natives worship the sun god and fend off the depredations of Odin-worshipping Vikings. When the late king's brother, ruling as regent, decides he doesn't want to the hand the throne over to his young nephew, the stage is set for a classic tale of murder, peasant uprising, and heroism (the hero being the loner Viking Ziemowit, who takes up the cause of the local peasants against their scheming ruler).

Pagan rituals, including a funeral, a bacchanalian festival, and the casting of a love-spell, are enchantingly portrayed. The forest scenery is gorgeous, and cinematography is excellent throughout. CGI backgrounds and settings are absolutely beautiful (though special action effects are not quite up to Hollywood standards). Pacing is almost too fast. There's a buoyant sense of energy reminiscent of American films I grew up watching in the 1960s about Vikings, King Arthur, Robin Hood, etc.

At the film's end, we learn that Ziemowit will found the Piast dynasty that will rule Poland as it emerges into the Christian era.

Alongside Zebrowski, the towering Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski does a great turn as the stoic conscience of the peasantry. Olbrychski used to be the male hottie in Polish movies (the slot now occupied by Zebrowski), and he's the one, not Zebrowski, who gets the shirtless scene in this movie. Like Sean Connery, Olbrychski has still got it, and always will! As of this writing (mid-2005), this movie can be found (though not easily!) on DVD with English subtitles, under the title WHEN THE SUN WAS GOD: AN ANCIENT TALE.

In my language this movie is called "The old tales of Vikings". For a fan of movies featuring Vikings one must say, that there aren't that many movies to watch. You keep returning to the same 3-4 good ones and if you crave something different, you start to scrape the bottom of the barrel pretty fast.

This movie appeared in the offering of my VOD. Given that it was apparently about Vikings and featured Zebrowski, whom I liked in the Witcher Series I gave it a go.

The movie has things I liked very much and things I didn't. Lets start with the bad.

The Acting is somewhat wooden, so is the direction and camerawork. The movie isn't very good to look at, with often bland colours, excessive exposition, lack of contrast and general shakiness. The opening shot of a wooden statue was already overly shaky, so the rest of the movie wasn't much of a surprise. The camerawork is basic and amateurish, reminiscent of television rather than a film. Imagine a worse Xena warrior princess style thing and you'd get the idea. What was making the experience worse in my case was the bad quallity of the dubbing, which had a reverb as if recorded in a bathroom. That's a problem though only if you watch the movie in Czech. I'd probably still choose the bathroom dubbing over trying to acquire the original with subtitles.

At times the direction is unintentionally funny. Usually death scenes feel more entertaining than dramatic.

The good things about the movie (other than the unintentional comedy) are the costumes, locations, fightscenes. The depicted Vikings are among the best and most accurate ones I have seen in a movie. Propper helmets and birnies are worn along with shields and 9th century swords. The fight scene against a band of Vikings is especially nicely done with practical effects and stunts. They must have been especially proud of the functional portcullis, because there are at leas 5 shots of it closing throughout the movie.

Overall, you can see that a lot of effort and passion went into making this movie. I feel like, they did the best they could with what was available and thus I can't be too critical about the shortcomings.