Habit and Armour

They are founded to convert and to heal. But they want more. They want to be above others. Sacred oaks fall to the ground. Prussian villages are burning. The monks are building a state: rich, perfectly managed, authoritarian and theocratic. An invincible state.

They take control of the nearby port - Gdańsk - and they call on knights to join a safari against Lithuanians.

Their despised neighbours establish an alliance. As Poland and Lithuania lay the cornerstone of a superpower, the Order declares war. The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth wins the climactic battle but it fails to overbear the Order. This war lasts 13 years.

The people of Teutonic towns, Toruń in particular, turn out to be the biggest winners of the conflict. They want to be free. They are the ones to overcome the Order by choosing Jagiellonian Poland: the country of freedom and progress. The citizens of Prussian lands renounce allegiance to the Order and become subjects of the Commonwealth.

Longing for freedom versus an authoritarian corporation - this is the story of the Teutonic Order. Even today its legacy keeps influencing the shape Europe.

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The film „Habit & Armour” shows the history of the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania as a huge strategic game in which different civilisation values compete and the human emotions collide. The script comprises 300 years of history, from the 13th to the 16th century –from the beginning of the Order, to the Great War with Poland and Lithuania in the 15th century, to its secularisation and tribute to the Polish King in the so called Prussian Homage.

 

Running time: 100 minutes