This movie is set in the 1330s and 1340s, and tells about an Estonian lad's movements on the Mediaeval social ladder. Its production was seriously hampered by the conflict between its ambitious original script and the limited production capabilities. The outcome is a rather typical 1980's Estonian movie (which should be understood as an euphemism). The screenplay was written by the same person who had written the original screenplay for "Viimne reliikvia" (1969), though the success of the 1969 movie may lay in the fact that its screenplay was heavily edited which did not happen with "Hundiseaduse aegu" (1984). For instance, it was scripted that the 1984 movie should have included a battle between the peasants and the knights which was simply deleted, as it was simply not possible to gather the necessary armoured cavalry and train the horses. Or the absurd killing-by-staring scene had originally to be a shot with a crossbow; the crossbow was also deleted as it might have been too difficult and dangerous to shoot an actor convincingly on the screen.
I remember from the original theatrical run also visible camera tracks in the swamp scene, but they disappeared from the version I saw in the late 1990's.
Finding a suitable castle was also a problem, so a late 19th-century Neogothic castle was used for both exterior and interior (with its central heating radiators), located in a forest which certainly was not the case for a Mediaeval castle. When the movie opened in 1984, the papers had articles about the movie's goofs, such as the power line poles and 18th-19th-century rural architecture or some 17th-century costumes in the 14th-century setting.
However, the ethereal electronic music adds much to the film. Paying attention to the message of their lyrics, the songs (like the opening and closing song, "Who are you, who am I?", or the one about death) reinforce the main character's sense of social solitude (he was not one of the peasants, nor of the monks, nor of the gentry). Also the generic, unsynchronised ritual music in the rural rite scene helps to create the abstract overall atmosphere, not that of a specific event.
I remember from the original theatrical run also visible camera tracks in the swamp scene, but they disappeared from the version I saw in the late 1990's.
Finding a suitable castle was also a problem, so a late 19th-century Neogothic castle was used for both exterior and interior (with its central heating radiators), located in a forest which certainly was not the case for a Mediaeval castle. When the movie opened in 1984, the papers had articles about the movie's goofs, such as the power line poles and 18th-19th-century rural architecture or some 17th-century costumes in the 14th-century setting.
However, the ethereal electronic music adds much to the film. Paying attention to the message of their lyrics, the songs (like the opening and closing song, "Who are you, who am I?", or the one about death) reinforce the main character's sense of social solitude (he was not one of the peasants, nor of the monks, nor of the gentry). Also the generic, unsynchronised ritual music in the rural rite scene helps to create the abstract overall atmosphere, not that of a specific event.
