“Wiking” on August 24 on 4K ULTRA HD, Blu ‑ ray ™, DVD and in the collector’s edition of Steelbook!

Young Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård ) is on the verge of becoming a man when his father, King Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke), is brutally murdered by Uncle Fjolnir (Claes Bang), who kidnaps the boy’s mother, Princess Gudrún (Nicole Kidman). Escaping from his kingdom by boat, the child vows revenge. Two decades later, Amleth is a Viking invading Slavic villages, where a certain witch (Björk) reminds him of his oath: to avenge his father, save his mother, kill his uncle. Traveling on a slave ship to Iceland, Amleth enters her uncle’s farm with the help of Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy), a captive Slavic woman – and sets off to keep her oath.

The legend of Prince Amlet, known from the 13th century notes, which previously inspired Shakespeare, among others, has now become the basis for a script that Eggers and Sjón wrote together. By mixing it with Icelandic sagas and Norse myths, they created a fully original story set around the 10th century. Robert Eggers once again used dozens of historical sources to create the film to best embed it in the era. Vikingso it does not present a Hollywood vision of a beautiful warrior, but a brutally realistic picture of the old days. Behind each artistic decision is not only the author’s intention, but also a detailed consultation with historians specializing in the issue, thanks to which the final result is unique in comparison to popular historical films. All this work was done at the stage of writing the script, which became a perfect combination of historical literary genres. Fantastic elements drawn from legends appear here against the background of Icelandic family sagas, historically focused on presenting the actual struggles of Icelandic families rather than creating unreal visions.

Amleth’s story comes from legends that are the opposite of the family sagas. But the writers understood the difference , notes Neil Price, a professor of archeology and one of the film’s consultants. – As in the previous films, the magic element was very important for Eggers, which combined these two genres created a very interesting effect. The fantastic side of the narrative can be perceived by viewers both as actually happening in the story and being only imagined by the characters , Price expands and adds:this is by far the most faithful image of the Viking Age I have ever seen. When I was on set in pre-production, I felt downright overwhelmed. I’ve never known this level of attention to detail in a history film before.

But contrary to what it might seem, when we realize the director’s titanic work on theoretical preparation for the film’s creation, as he himself admits, the Vikings had little interest in him:

I thought of them as cruel brutes and didn’t see anything interesting about them . On the contrary, my wife, she had loved the Icelandic sagas for a long time and was convinced that I would love them too.

However, it was only the moment of visiting Iceland that became decisive for Eggers to become interested in this topic:

There was something about these elements calling out from the landscapes. Immediately after that, I started thinking about Vikings and what really happened in the first decades of the 10th century in Scandinavia, and at the same time I became sensitive to the ubiquitous reinterpretations and inaccuracies projected onto the Viking culture in the following millennia – adds the director.

Thus, the idea of ​​making a historically accurate story about the Vikings began to arise, and when Eggers met Alexander Skarsgård shortly after, it became clear that the Vikings would be the subject of his next film. Together with the Icelandic poet and musician Sjón, they wrote the script and, thanks to consultations with historians and archaeologists, it was possible to create a film in which every element of the story makes up a well-thought-out composition, richly drawing on the rich literature and the most recent discoveries about the ancient history of northern Europe.

For the first time, Robert Eggers gathered such a wide cast consisting of an excellent class of actors, among which, apart from Alexander Skarsgård, there were, among others, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy , Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Björk. The action takes place in three completely different locations and at the same time radically different moments in the life of the main character, who grows up with a dormant desire for revenge. The result is a complete story told with great panache, which skillfully breaks with all the associations that forced us to re-romanticized pop-culture shots of the Vikings, which we have seen so far. This movie is radically different.

Wiking is the third full-length film by Robert Eggers in his career, who has already entered his name for good among the most important contemporary filmmakers. The film will be released on 4K ULTRA HD, Blu-ray™, DVD and in the collector’s edition4K ULTRA HD Steelbookon August 24.

Special features in the 4K ULTRA HD edition :

• Unused and additional scenes

• A timeless epic

• Viking faces

• Amleth’s path to becoming a man

• Visiting the set

• Gra Knattleikr

• Nordic landscape

• Commentary by co-writer and director Robert Eggers