Hunyadi - The Legacy of the Middle Ages # 2025

The Middle Ages still ignite the imagination today, but the ideal of brave and noble knights never truly reflected reality. The successful series "Game of Thrones" is closer to the intricate dynastic battles of the late Middle Ages than one might think (minus dragons and Night Kings). With the death of Emperor Sigismund in 1437, the last of the Luxembourgs, who was the first to unite the crowns of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, and Hungary, a political vacuum emerges in the heart of Europe, fought over by rising families like the Habsburgs and powerful nobles like Janos Hunyadi. 

A child, Ladislaus Postumus, is Duke of Austria and King of Bohemia and Hungary at birth, but in his brief 17 years of life, he is mostly a pawn on the field of power. The rising power of the Ottoman Empire is met with passionate calls for crusades, but it is only after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 that the princes are forced into collective action. Battles and intrigues, alliances and betrayal continue to shape Central Europe. In the end, one family remains—the Habsburgs. Yet, they inherit not only the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary but also the conflict with the Ottoman Empire.

Currently, the European epic production "Rise of the Raven" is being created under the direction of Robert Dornhelm, with the figure of Hungarian commander Janos Hunyadi at the center. We tell the historical background of this heroic saga, the intrigues and schemes of rulers and nobles, with a child who was already a king upon birth, yet spent his life as a hostage of the powerful. A brutal game of rulers in the declining Middle Ages, just before the dawn of the modern age.