Set in 13th-century Europe, Frantisek Vlacil’s visionary medieval epic chronicles the tale of a young boy forced to join the Order of the Teutonic Knights. Years later he abandons the Crusaders, only to be pursued by a fanatical comrade and pay a terrible price for his rejection of the Holy Order. 

With dazzling monochrome cinematography and vivid recreation of the period, The Valley of the Bees is a raw and haunting moral fable about the conflict between human nature and dogmatism – and just as powerful and engrossing a film as his more famous work, Marketa Lazarová.