And Andrzej Wajda is a brilliant filmmaker who, in this, the culminating film of his great saga, has managed to produce a film of action, humor and irony that is at once a tribute and a critique.

A Byzantine princess is snatched and entrusted to a fierce Ottoman warrior to deliver to the sultan as part of a surrender package of the city, until an unexpected overturn of the political chessboard changes all their fates.