The film is based on a "true legend" and ranks on the historical scale of King Arthur. When the chieftain dies, the settlement is left to his three daughters. Libuse (Winter Ave Zoli) the youngest rules. She is a seer and a bit of a necromancer. Her one sister is a healer, while the other a priestess. She gets involved with a farmer and things to to pot. This was the part of ancient Prague that speaks English with a slight accent and the women pluck their eyebrows, wear make-up, and shave their legs. The film lacks the heavy fantasy elements of other legends which makes it interesting. The fight scenes were a joke. Premysl was a transgender fight before Andy Kaufman. Guide: Sex and nudity. No swearing.

This is a movie my brother likes. I decided to sit down and watch this knowing full well of it's reputation here on IMDb. I have absolutely no idea of the Czech legend it was based on so I am not going to bring that up as a complaint.The plot is that a king dies and one of his three daughters ends up being queen. This one can also see the future (Why is this never explained?). She whores herself (There really is no better word for it) at a peasant who saved her life and gets him to become king once a war starts. Completely forgetting about the war (??????????????) the king starts ruling the country with an iron fist (Which when we see the only settings being caves, forests and peasant houses - yes even the castle looks exactly the same as a farm).So the plot is pretty disjointed (but it's not like Monster A-Go Go where you ask yourself if there was a plot to begin with) to the extent that I didn't really know what these people were doing or what they were aiming for. The King's goal (See! I don't even remember his name!) seems clear enough, grow as a country and crush his opposition. That was all I got for the movie in terms of goals.The next point. What were the character's names? I know Libuse but... That's all. I didn't know what any other person's name was. The 2 minute exposition at the beginning might have said them but of all the things we don't have to rely on THAT.Another thing the villain of this piece has to be one of the weakest villains in cinema. I mean, worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space. I know I can't take that back but it's true the villain in Plan 9 From Outer Space was stronger.Now onto the positives. The Acting was decent from some people, even if they are also forgettable. The Cinematography was not bad (even if they have about 4 locations). There was a small hint that they could have been trying something with the premise.So if you want to sit down and watch a historical drama with some kind of love relationship... watch the three hour cut of Arn instead. That had a plot, character development, DEVELOPMENT, good focus and when they changed it, they did it right. Go watch that instead.

I am writing this especially as the movie has mostly positive reviews in here and I'd like to put some counterpart to them. To make things clear, I hated the movie. Well, "hate" might be too a strong word. It is so ridiculous you can't really hate it. If I overlook the fact that it is based on Czech mythology, it is a really bad movie. The idea is OK - people should take care of nature and try to live in harmony with it. The whole thing with women being one with natural order and men being mean, arrogant machos is rather far- fetched...but OK, the director has his ideas and I'm not taking them from him. But so many other thing drag it down. Props are...mostly not there. The story barely makes sense. Actors are mostly Czech and their English sounds verrry bad. (By the way, the two actors from Libuse's entourage are known for having lived in English-speaking countries before the Velvet Revolution, so one would expect them to sound at least a little native. Well, one would be wrong.) The dialogues are ridiculous and acting beyond anything describable in human language. And I could go on. The problem is, I cannot overlook the fact that this piece of...art...is based upon Czech mythology. I don't know what people imagine when they read "based upon". Yes, the movie has some common points with the Czech stories. Like names of the characters. And some parts of plot-lines. I just don't understand why the creators did't take parts of the Czech myths they liked and didn't use them without ever mentioning the source. Well, I do. No one would care that way. This gives the movie mythological flavour and somewhat justifies how awfully bad it is. Why is Vlasta lesbian? Or transgender or whatever. Libuse never tricks her men like she does in the movie, when she purposefully sends them to Premysl (she's a seer so she doesn't need to...), it actually turns her into some sex-driven, crazy puppet-master. Libuse should be dead when the war between men and women starts (the point of this story is completely different). And nor she nor any of her sisters is supposed to be a FAIRY. I mean what the hell? I don't want to seem like I am writing this out of spite. But I really believe this movie is an insult of storytelling, the art of cinema and anyone acquainted with the original mythology...actually, maybe of the whole Czech nation.

I can't imagine anyone will ever make a better movie than this about the legendary founding of the city of Prague. That's right, Prague. Not Paris. Not London. Not Berlin. The Pagan Queen purports to tell the Dark Ages origins of Prague. Weirdly, though, it's not a foreign language film. It was made in the Czech Republic but everybody's speaking English, and largely unaccented English at that. This also isn't some trashy romp with topless chicks running around and a bunch of badly staged battle scenes that look like kids playing in the backyard with Nerf swords. There is some nudity and violence here but this is, more or less, a well intentioned effort at bringing a mythic page of Czech history to life and to his credit, co-writer/director Constantin Werner does a decent job of it.Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this is a great movie or even a very good one. However, I have seen motion pictures so awful they would make you doubt the existence of a kind and loving God. The Pagan Queen has an above average cast, some very solid production values given its screamingly obvious budget limitations and is directed with a competent eye. The writing here is the weakest link, with a plot that should have dispensed with several side characters and their stories while imbuing either more realism or more imagination to it's main focus, but everything makes some kind of sense and I can admire the narrative ambition of the script. It feels like Werner clung a little to tightly to the legend when he should have concentrated on telling the best tale he could.Libuse (Winter Ave Zoli) is a seer in 700 AD central Europe. When her father dies, she is elevated to the council of her kingdom and proves herself so wise and inspiring a leader that she is named queen. As she is pressured to marry, she instead carries on a secret affair with a lowly plowman named Premysi (Csaba Lucas) and sets her people to mining the great wealth out of their land. A dispute between miners and farmers eventually escalates to the point where Libuse must take a husband to calm things down and she manipulates a marriage to Premysi, who proves to be a hard and ruthless king. Eventually, a childhood friend of Libuse's (Lea Mornar) raises an army of women warriors in rebellion against Premysi and becomes another bloody foundation stone in the great city that Libuse dreams and Premysi sets about to create. There's also a whole subplot about Libuse's sisters (Vera Filatova and Veronika Bellova) and how they symbolize the decline of the "old ways" and the rise of Christian modernity.Winter Ave Zoli is fine as Libuse, beautiful and capable of more depth than you might expect. Csaba Lucas gives a one note performance but hits that note exactly right. Lea Mornar is the standout here and gives real spirit to her part, though it's somewhat offset by her having an accent more pronounced than the rest of the cast put together. Frankly, there's no one on screen here that makes you think they got their role through some exchange of cash or sexual favors.While there's an amateurish edge to the script, Werner did quite a job of making a film that looks good with little spent. The costumes and props look nice and everything is lit well and sounds clear. The sets are largely forest clearings and what appears to be medieval tourist attractions rented out for a day or two, but The Pagan Queen looks like a legitimate film and not something high school kids did with their camera phones over spring break.With some romance, political intrigue, environmental moralizing and plenty of attractive actresses, The Pagan Queen is almost good enough to recommend. The story is just weak enough and the subject matter handled too demurely for that. What I can say is there's a lot of crap out there far worse than this movie. And if you've got a hankering to know the mysterious beginnings of Prague, you now know where to look.