Shadow of the Sword - The executioner

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Movie
German title Shadow of the Sword - The executioner
Original title The Headsman
Country of production England , Austria ,
Switzerland , Luxembourg ,
Germany , Hungary
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Simon Aeby
script Steve Attridge ,
Susanne Freund
Diego Donnhofer (idea)
production Helmut Grasser
music Matthias Weber
camera Vladimír Smutný
cut Karin Hartusch
occupation

Shadow of the Sword is a historical film produced in 2005 that deals with the historical topic of the Inquisition in the early early modern times .

action

Martin and Georg grow up as good friends like brothers in a village in Tyrol . It is the beginning of the 16th century. Both are foundlings and orphans . But the boys' contact suddenly ends when Georg is accepted by the archbishop. He educates him in his monastery in the spirit of the Roman Catholic Church . As an adult, Georg was appointed prior of the monastery.

Martin soon has to make ends meet as a mercenary and grows up as a soldier. He gets to know the young Anna, the daughter of an executioner . He falls in love with the young woman and marries her. Soon he will have to do his father-in-law's bloody trade and kill people who have been condemned by the church as heretics and blasphemers.

Martin and Georg meet again as adults. Georg, the prior of the monastery, wants to enforce his faith according to the instructions of the archbishop. As a result of an intrigue between monks of the monastery and the executioner's assistant, a sacred relic of the church is stolen and foisted on the executioner. This theft is seen as a heretical act and, after Georg has tried in vain to stop the situation, calls the Spanish Inquisition into action. A war of faith breaks out and the friendship between Georg and Martin is put to a tough test. After Martin's family is arrested, the situation escalates.

Background information

The film, which was produced inexpensively with a production budget of 8.5 million dollars compared to other productions, was shot in Hungary , in the Austrian state of Styria and at Kreuzenstein Castle in Lower Austria . The entire post production was carried out by the Viennese company Listo .

The premiere took place on May 13, 2005 at the Cannes International Film Festival . The film was then shown in selected cinemas in Switzerland (from February 16, 2006) and Austria (from January 20, 2006).

The film has been available on DVD since September 28, 2006.

To the title

While the film was shot under the title Henker , it has the English title Shadow of the Sword and the subtitle Der Henker on the DVDs distributed in German-speaking countries . For the US market it was sold under the English title The Headsman .

Reviews

  • "The dark story against the background of doggedly fought religious wars convinces with committed actors, equipment and exquisite camera work, but suffers from the accumulation of character clichés." - Lexicon of international film
  • "(...) presents an interesting European co-production, which was mainly driven from Austria. The topic is of course also country-specific, but broad enough to appeal to a universal audience. In the introductory text one tries to bridge the gap to today's religious fundamentalism The film is good, but a little ambiguous, because while it depicts life in the Middle Ages very convincingly in the first two thirds and can make the horror of the Inquisition clear, it is forfeited towards the end he went a little too much into the cinema area (...) " - movieman

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Film review of Shadow of the Sword. In: Filmdienst. Retrieved January 15, 2020 .
  2. ^ Film review of Shadow of the Sword. In: movieman. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012 .;