The Supreme Value of a Free Conscience

Grzegorz Królikiewicz’s film is a tribute to the Warsaw Confederation – the groundbreaking 1573 law that made the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth one of the most tolerant countries in 16th-century Europe. Inspired by Juliusz Słowacki’s poem, director Jan Bielecki tells the story of a conflict between the Sieniawski and Bielecki families set against a backdrop of turbulent political change. When the fanaticism of the Calvinist Sieniawski leads to the death of a child from the Bielecki family, Jan Bielecki seeks justice from the king – only to encounter the moment of Sigismund Augustus’s death. The sessions of the convocation sejm, the election of Henryk Walezy, and the accession of Stefan Batory to the throne mark successive stages in the fight for legal religious tolerance. In the shadow of these events, the tragic finale of the feud between the warring families unfolds.