Days of Darkness - Day of Wrath

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Movie
German title Days of Darkness - Day of Wrath
Original title Day of Wrath
Country of production Hungary , Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Adrian Rudomin
script Adrian Rudomin
production Ashley Sidaway ,
Kornél Sipos ,
Sam Sleiman ,
Adrian Rudomin
music David Schweitzer
camera Tamás Lajos
cut Clive Barrett
occupation

Days of Darkness - Day of Wrath (Original: Day of Wrath , Hungarian : A harag napja ) is a Hungarian-British fictional film from 2006 that was directed by Adrian Rudomin .

action

Spain at the time of the Inquisition in 1542. Masked strangers kill the Duke de Santa Fe and his entourage at the celebrations for the appointment of Mayor Don Francisco del Ruiz as the new governor . The brutal murderer leaves an incised letter as his “trademark” on the nobleman's chest. The present police prefect Ruy de Mendoza, a member of a lower aristocratic family, takes on the case despite private marriage and alcohol problems, but no one wants to believe him at first, as the battered corpses disappear a little later without a trace. Even the Duke's widow does not confirm her husband's death and lies to Mendoza. She finds support in a secret conspiracy of selected heads of state around the Grand Inquisitor Brother Anselmo, who try with all their might to cover up the exact circumstances of the murders.

The prefect of police commences initial investigations, but in the process comes across a wall of silence in the pious community, which is primarily characterized by fear of the Inquisition and heresy , as well as ubiquitous anti-Semitism . Another murder of Count Jaramillo and his bodyguard formally confirms it, but the bodies disappear again without a trace when Mendoza wants to visit the crime scene with the Countess . As before, the countess also denies the disappearance of her husband. Although nobody seems to believe him, his research arouses the attention of the manipulating inquisitors. But for lack of evidence, he himself soon becomes the mockery of the citizens of his native city. He did not give up, however, researched a library, discovered discrepancies in the ancestral lines of the Spanish nobility and came across historical manipulations that also affect his own family situation.

On the same day he manages to face the leader of the murderers in a duel, but he is subject to the well-trained fencer and is easily injured. In pursuit of the perpetrator, he discovered two bodies again. After a cursory investigation, during which he found a list of Spanish Jewish families in addition to precious jewelry, he finally witnesses how his right hand discovers the dead and secretly cleans the crime scene. The murderer soon visits him again, posing as a Hungarian mercenary who carries out the murders on behalf of the governor, his uncle. At the same time he warns Mendoza to take good care of his family, later saves his life several times and leads him to his uncle, the governor.

This finally explains to him what the city and the lists are all about. This is a list of Spanish Jews , the so-called Conversos , who evaded exile in 1492 on threat of the death penalty by settling in a single city and using Christian names for themselves. Since this knowledge of their origins is an important instrument of power, with the help of which one can become the most powerful man in the empire, decide about life and death, and the governor is also blackmailed by his fellow believers, he decides to hire mercenaries to arrest the blackmailers close. However, since he does not know the blackmailers in his town, but they are all of Jewish origin, including his brother Anselmo, he decides to kill many people on the list, as he suspects the blackmailers to be from these ranks. The perpetrators are mainly Brother Anselmo and some high-ranking nobles, all of whom are subsequently executed by Hungarian mercenaries.

At the end of the film, Mendoza, who previously lost his wife, marries his now widowed childhood sweetheart Carmen de Jaramillo in a solemn Catholic ceremony and in a secret Jewish one.

Reviews

“Christopher Lambert will probably no longer be a good actor in this millennium, but for his parade role, the popular historical costume gnome of the good, it's still enough at 50, like this barely concealed low-budget variant of 'The Name of the Rose' with Lambert in the Connery role proves entertaining. Politically correct detective entertainment in solid equipment, strategically sensible in terms of market strategy, regularly interrupted by the clatter of swords and street fights. "

- Video week : film review

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