Bathory

At the dawn of the 17th century, Ferenc Nadasdy, wealthy nobleman and commander of the Hungarian army, was fighting tirelessly to protect the Holy Roman Empire from the Ottomans. Violence and cruelty were customary among medieval aristocrats and the rumours surrounding Nadasdy’s beloved but neglected wife, Countess Erzsebet Bathory, enraged the local clergy.

Some believed Countess Bathory was a prolific murderess of virgins, who bathed in their blood to achieve eternal youth, thus spawning rumours of vampirism. Others saw here as a persecuted Renaissance healer whose passion for science turned against her in a period besieged by war and witch hunts. Guilty? or victim of a political elite trying to usurp this noblewoman of luminous beauty, richer than the king. Through a lens of magical fantasy, Juraj Jakubisko shines new light on this enigmatic historical figure of many faces in an enthralling film that spans a century of conflict.

JURAJ JAKUBISKO

His films banned by the Czechoslovakian regime until 1979, today Juraj Jakubisko has been honoured the world over. Fellini said of this master of magic realism: “in Jakubisko’s film the irrational, miraculous and fabulous, appear as naturally as life itself”. Previous work includes An ambiguous report about the end of the world (1979) and Post Coitum (2004).