Klejnot Wolnego Sumienia (1981)

Run Time - 96 min.  |   Countries - Poland  |  
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Synopsis by Eleanor Mannikka

In 1573 the "Confederation of Warsaw" was signed by the king and the nobility to promote religious tolerance in Poland of that time. King Zygmunt August (Sigismund II Augustus - (Krzsysztof Kursa) had long sympathized with the Protestant reformers although he himself was a Catholic, a fact that helped the Confederation to succeed. This film tells the story behind the signing of the Confederation document, introducing the reformers Jan Zamoyski (Jozef Nalberczak) and Marshall Firley (Aleksander Fogiel), as well as other kings and prominent noble families of that era. Two of those families, the Sieniawskis (Calvinists) and Bieleckies (Catholics) quarrel heatedly between them, a symbol for the near civil-war that was on the horizon if these issues could not be resolved. The successive kings periodically intervene to carry through with peace initiatives (and eventually, with the Confederation) before the situation deteriorated into a war that might threaten their own existence. The events enacted in this historical film were echoed by the Solidarity movement of the 1970s -- certainly not an accidental parallel.

Characteristics

Keywords

freedom-of-religion, reform [improve], religion