The place and time of action is the conditional Middle Ages. It is pointless to look for intersections with real geography, with history too. The film is non-linear, almost arthouse in the way the material is presented, a lot has to be conjectured and connected independently.
The main way of depicting artistic reality is realism, but fabulously delusional moments are often observed.
The main character we first meet in a questionable tavern, swollen from prolonged drunkenness beggar, losing cards? bones? dominoes? the last of its worthwhile thing - a massive ring with a stone, indignant and getting for it on the face (and not only). The lights go out. “Since then, only the fight for justice has been his destiny. A model of nobility and courage, an unsurpassed master of the sword, he became the last hope of the offended. Yeah, I laughed a lot, too. Hurry, Gollum, give back my ring, my ring, my beauty. The Great Crusade of a former intelligent man of appropriate appearance.
I would have turned it off, but the film is not as simple as it seems. Protracted, tedious, unsettled - but addictive and deep. Asbray is indeed a master of the sword, and he is constantly, everywhere and everywhere overtaken by visions of his own past, in which he guesses the noble origin, participation in victorious battles and the death of the only beloved woman who wore the ring. Asbray is recognized and honored by soldiers from a column of retreating wounded soldiers, and he flees in the torment of conscience. A mysterious hermit guides him and disappears. The Black Dog shows him the right way.
A murky incoherent narrative suddenly transforms into an intricate artistic canvas, atypically showing the spiritual rebirth of a fallen and fallen knight. Drama with adventure entourage and fantasy assumptions, as in films of the Soviet period (a la Ivango-Robin Hood-St.), but do not expect dynamics and a coherent plot, as well as “masterfully staged, naturalistic battle scenes”. The film could be more interesting with a significant increase in budget and extras, but it is not bad.