Michael the Brave

The end of the sixteenth century. Michael, voivode of Wallachia, rules a small principality paying tribute to the Ottomans. First he rises against the Ottomans, then takes Transylvania, then Moldavia. In 1600 the three lands are briefly united under one ruler. But it is not only the Ottomans in front of him; Austria wants its own arrangement in the region, and at home the boyars are calculating for themselves. The union does not last a year, and Michael is assassinated. Sergiu Nicolaescu's film runs three hours and twenty-three minutes. Amza Pellea plays Michael, and Nicolaescu is in the cast himself. The battle scenes, shot with thousands of extras, are a record of scale in Romanian cinema. The film was made under Ceaușescu and sits squarely inside the nationalist account of the period.