Lenya - Die größte Kriegerin aller Zeiten

A lot of darkness and fire in the titles, the village burnt down by the evil invaders to provide a good reason for revenge later on - yes, the beginning is quite reminiscent of "Conan the Barbarian", but since this is a TV production, it develops into a direction of less blood spilling (our heroine many times rather knocks an enemy unconscious than killing him) and more political correctness, putting the heathen believers in Odin and Christian monks on the same side (!) against a follower of black magic who listens to a shape-shifting evil witch.

Shot in nice locations, the good technical work makes it look fine for the budget. Occasionally, a sudden zoom or surprise cut shows the school of the 1970s here instead of the dull epic style of nowadays. Talking of school, that's where you want to send Anja Knauer (as Lenya) back to - for her sloppy dialog performance. Pronouncing every "ist" like "is'" befits street talk, not historical drama. She must have been cast for the athletic bit rather than anything else. I liked Hendrik Duryn as Gero, though. Sympathetic character with a very fitting dark edge. Sonja Kirchberger as the witch is so creepy, that's a performance any cinema production would be proud of. The ending suggests a sequel was planned - or maybe this was intended to be the pilot of a series, but that never happened. I could imagine a few reasons why, such as the quest for the magical sword which is not exactly a brand-new story idea...