- A young man is searching for the war to free his country and establish freedom. Instead of war he finds the love of his life.
- It is 1914. The Haley-comet is shining in the sky and Albania is finally free from 500 years of Ottoman rule. Instead of freedom, anarchy reigns. The neighboring countries want a piece of Albania, the Ottoman sympathizers want the return of the Great Sultan and European powers want to establish their influence. Divided in protectorates between different European countries Albania at that time resembles very much the today's Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo etc. Wielhelm Wied an unanimous German Prince was crowned King of Albania with the task of establishing peace and creating a modern state of Albania modeled by the European states. In his post he lasted only six months. This period was turbulent, violent, cynical, tragic-comical and for some people it raised false hopes for a better future. In a small insignificant village in south Albania, a young man, Shestan, decides to take action. He sees the European presence as an historical chance for a new beginning. He wants to be participant and wants to serve and go to war for the new European King. With some of his friends he creates a small unit of fighters that sets of on a long journey to find the just war that will finally lead to freedom. But very soon this detachment of freedom fighters find themselves lost in the different landscapes of their own country. A tragic-comical series of events leads them from one area of Albania to the other. Their outdated Ottoman map does not show the new borders of the different protectorates. The detachments ideal of the quest for freedom soon clashes with the cynical geo-political strategies of the great powers and the diverging wills of different extremist movements (political and religious). A gallery of "apocalyptic" figures feature through the movie creating the tragic-comical frame in which the story is developed, like: The cynical Austrian officer and close advisor to King Wied who lives a bohemian life, has an affair with the Queen who is dying of boredom. He publicly mocks Shestan and his man for their naive idealism but secretly admires and envies them for the same reason; Kus Baba a muslim extremist, with his private army of renegades, open homosexual, and notorious for his attraction to young man who offers a peace deal to King Wied if he circumcises himself in the muslim manner. He also falls in love with Shestan which is also the reason why Shestan manages to stay alive; King Wied himself an apparently naive being who can be ruthless and shrewd when his skin is at stake and Ahmed a muslim leader who sets off a martyr competition between muslims and christians in order to settle a centuries old dilemma over a holy grave; to mention but just a few. In their journey Shestan also meets Agnes. Once on her way to become a nun, taken to the convent by her father against her will. And later after she escapes the convent, gets raped by a renegade group of soldiers and once again gets expelled from her home. Shestan is torn between the growing love to Agnes and his mission to become a freedom fighter for his country. He sends her back to the convent, again, against her will. Shestan finds himself taking someone else's freedom in his own quest for freedom. His hopes that all will be worth while are soon shattered after his meeting with the cynical Ralf Keitel, the shrewd and senseless King and the death of most of the man he convinced to follow him by the hands of the ruthless army of Kus Baba. On his journey back home the broken down Shestan does his one and only heroic did. He saves Agnes from the absurd martyr competition of the mad Ahmet, just in time before she gives her last breath. Takes her home and marries her. Shestan makes a big wedding inviting all the village. At the wedding day the news of a new war is announced. The Archduke of Austria has been murdered in Sarajevo. The war has come uninvited. Shestan decides that the only things to do is to play the music louder and continue with the wedding.
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