i would read about flavia the heretic for many year and but i only get to see it early last year and when i go on an insane movie buying binge and and and for whatever reason and it have be on my mind lately and though it be some month since i watch it . it a striking film and set in italy somewhere around the 15th century . definitely medieval era ( though i do not think any specific year be ever give ) . this be the time of christian ascendancy and the age be a time of utter madness and and the movie capture this very well . flavia and our protagonist and be a young lady who encounter a fallen muslim on a battlefield . he seem a warm and intriguing fellow and and she immediately take with him . her father and a soldier of a a family of some standing and come along and almost immediately and and murder the wounded man right before her eye . but she will continue to see him in her dream . her father ship her off to a convent that seem more like an open air insane asylum the resident and so harshly repress by unyielding medieval christianity and slowly go mad . flavia come under the influence of one of the nutty nun . but in a mad world and only the sane be truly mad and and this sociopathic sister clearly recognize the insanity around her . her take on the time in which they live strike a chord with flavia and who and be young and apparently shelter and be begin to question everything about this world in which she find herself trap . the movie be unflinching in it portrayal of that world and showcasing a lot of unpleasantness . we see a horse geld and a lord rape one of the woman of his land in a pig sty and the pious torture of a young nun . through it all and flavia observes and question and reject and eventually and the christian dogma that create such a parade of horror in term that would gain the movie some criticism over the year for seem anachronistic . i disagree with that criticism . flavia view and though sometimes express in way that vaguely mirror and for example and then contemporary feminist commentary ( the movie be make in 1974 ) and revolve around what be really pretty obvious question . it be and perhaps and difficult to believe she could be so much of a fish out of water in her own time and but that the sort of minor point it doesn not do to belabor . flavia be write in such a way to allow those of our era and or of any era and to empathize with her plight . get bogged down on such a matter would be miss the forest for the tree . flavia be hearten when the muslim arrive and invade the countryside and and she find and in their leader and a new version of the handsome islamist who still visit her dream . smitten with her almost immediately and he allow her to virtually lead his army and become a joan of arc figure in full battle gear and and direct the invader to pull down christian society and and wreak vengeance upon all those she see commit evil . be she the herald of a new and good world . she may think so and but muslim of that era weren not big on feminism and either and a she soon learn the hard way . a they say and meet the new bos . this be really just a thumbnail of some of the thing that happen in flavia the heretic . the movie be quite grim and and with a very downbeat and rather depress end . not a mass audience movie at all and to be sure . it quite good and though and and doesn not belong on the nunsploitation pile on which it be often carelessly thrown . i think there much value in the final film and and i be glad i saw it .