The Traitor-King (film)

The Traitor-King
Directed by	[x]
Written by	[x]
Screenplay by	[x]
Produced by	[x]
Starring	[x]
Cinematography	[x]
Edited by	[x]
Music by	[x]
Production company	[x]
Distributed by	[x]
Release dates	23 October 2023 (2023-10-23) (Montecara Film Festival) 3 November 2023 (2023-11-03) (Aucurian theatrical release) 1 December 2023 (2023-12-01) (worldwide theatrical release)
Running time	xxx minutes
Country	Aucuria
Languages	Runanca, Ruttish
Box office	€tbd

The Traitor-King (Ruttish: Išdavikas-Karalius; Runanca: Sirpaq-Qhapaq) is a 2023 Aucurian biographical historical drama film directed by [x], with a screenplay by [x]. Starring [x], [x], and [x], the film depicts the Ruttish conquest of Cutinsua from the perspective of Kapakrokas, the final qhapaq of Čačapojas, who allied with Jurgis Leikauskas against hanan qhapaq Javarjupankis before being overthrown himself by Leikauskas.

The film is scheduled to premiere on October 23rd, 2023 at the 84th Montecara Film Festival. It is then slated for a theatrical release in Aucuria on November 3rd and a global release on December 1st.

Plot

[opening framing - a wordless close shot of a human skeleton, some of its bones visibly broken, in the modern day wiesstadt museum of world history]

[jump to 1528; kapakrokas and his chief priest are performing a ritual honoring the proceeding qhapaqs of cacapojas; afterwards, kapakrokas, ljokiacakas, and vaskaravalpas discuss the efforts of the qhapaq javarvakakas to prevent the consolidation of andavailan hegemony over the league of five cities/cutinsua, foiled by hanan qhapaq atokjupankis; kapakrokas mourns javarvakakas's failure; they also discuss the arrival of strange men across the arucian combined with turmoil in tzapotla and terachu]

[simultaneously, [x], the cacapojan envoy in andavaila, watches as hanan qhapaq javarjupankis and his court receive jurgis leikauskas, his ruttish užkariautojai, and anacaona, a nati woman used by leikauskas as a translator; [x] sends a message back to cacapojas noting that javarjupankis hopes to assert his authority by resolving disputes emerging between leikauskas and nearby nati chieftains, thereby getting the rutts to recognize him as their ruler]

[kapakrokas and his advisors discuss; kapakrokas notes the overthrow of kuokisiska in favor of mokumitsa by pale men in terachu, and concludes that this represents an unmissable chance to end andavailan dominance; vaskaravalpas agrees, ljokiacakas is wary but accepts the decision; kapakrokas tells [x] to discreetly relay this plan to the envoys to andavaila from suljanas and akarajas, who he expects to be sympathetic]

[as negotiations between javarjupankis and leikauskas stall, [x] approaches leikauskas and proposes that he meet with the other qhapaqs in suljanas; leikauskas agrees]

[in may, kapakrokas and his court travel to meet leikauskas, qhapaq of suljanas atavjupankis, and delegates from akarajas to negotatiate; kapakrokas promises to recognize ruttish control over the mouth of the paute river in exchange for ruttish assistance in a rebellion against andavaila; after some negotiation, leikauskas agrees, and all parties begin clandestinely moving to prepare, the agreement being to openly declare rebellion once some ruttish reinforcements arrive from apvaizda]

[while here, kapakrokas is pulled aside by anacaona, who warns him that the rutts are greedy and will not recognize the authority of anyone but one of their own; he dismisses her words as that of a woman of the low nobility]

[in june, the rebellion begins; a pro-andavailan army (led by kamjanjavis and qhapaq of lambajeke ninanamaras) and an anti-andavailan army (led by kapakrokas, atavjupankis, vajnakapakas, and leikauskas) meet at laurikocas; the battle is a slaughter, with kamjanjavis and ninanamaras killed and the shattered pro-andavailan army retreating back to andavaila itself]

[a siege ensues, dragging on for weeks; on october 30, however, kapakrokas watches a woman commit suicide by jumping from one of the towers on the city walls, followed by javarjupankis leading his army out of the city to engage in open battle; during the battle, leikauskas and his men capture javarjupankis, which causes the pro-andavailan army to break; what follows is the brutal sack of the city, in which most of javarjupankis's court is killed (including his wife, koja azarpajas, and his chief priest) or captured (including his sister, kusiqujluras, and the translator koljavazas); the only prominent official to escape is kavotoronkas, chief general of andavaila]

[the imprisoned javarjupankis is put on trial, by the rebels for violating the rights of league members and by the rutts for heathenry, murder, and incest; during the trial, javarjupankis explains why he met them in open battle (a prophecy from aklasisa, the suicide, relayed to him by his chief priest) and tries to defend himself, kapakrokas openly proclaims that he has righted the wrongs done to javarvakakas, and leikauskas denounces cutinsuan pagan rituals]

[javarjupankis is found guilty; as the rutts have custody, they decide on the sentence, and opt for death by burning, which shocks and horrifies the cutinsuans due to the value placed on maintaining and protecting the bodies of the dead; vaskaravalpas begins to get worried but kapakrokas is too blinded by triumph to care; leikauskas offers to commute the sentence to strangulation if javarjupankis converts to sotirianity, to which javarjupankis agrees; he faces his death with stoic resignation, and is executed on january 11 1529]

[kapakrokas is proclaimed as the new hanan qhapaq by the rebels, but shortly thereafter they receive word that tupakarancas - javarjupankis's brother and governor of oruras - has proclaimed himself hanan qhapaq and has kavotoronkas in his service; the pro-cacapojans and andavailan remnants meet again on the battlefield in february, and are again defeated, with tupakarancas, his wife kusirimajas, and kavotoronkas all captured, leaving oruras to fall with little resistance]

[once again, a trial, but a rushed, mock trial; vaskaravalpas's worry turns into disgust when he learns that kavotoronkas has been tortured to death by a group of užkariautojai who believed he knew the location of hidden andavailan treasures, but kapakrokas dismisses it out of hand as the fate of a traitor; tupakarancas and kusirimajas are sentenced to death by burning by the rutts, and defiantly refuse to convert, and so are burnt alive in oruras's main square; the forces now prepare to return to andavaila, from where the rutts will head back to apvaizda and the cutinsuan rebels back to their respective cities/to crush pockets of resistance]

[however, in the town of kailjomas on march 17, a group of cutinsuan soldiers attempt to use communion wafers and wine as offerings to a local waka; they are spotted by some rutts, who see this as desecration of the eucharist; a fight ensues, some of the rutts go back to alert their main group by telling them that the cutinsuans have attacked them; a massacre follows as the rutts turn on their unsuspecting erstwhile allies; atavjupankis and vajnakapakas are killed, kapakrokas orders his men to retreat and attempts to escape back to cacapojas with a small fragment of his army led by himself and vaskaravalpas]

[on this march back, kapakrokas is shellshocked as he finally does realize he has massively miscalculated and realizes he is likely to suffer the same fate or worse as all the other murdered cutinsuan leaders]

[a few days later, the ruttish - faster on horseback than the cacapojans on foot - ambush the cacapojans; vaskaravalpas is killed and kapakrokas is dragged before leikauskas; kapakrokas totally breaks down and begs for his life, offering to do literally anything leikauskas wishes in exchange for being allowed to survive; leikauskas is disgusted by kapakrokas's begging, comparing it unfavorably to javarjupankis's stoicism and tupakarancas's defiance, but accepts, on the condition that kapakrokas abdicate, convert, and go into exile; anacaona watches as koljavazas relays leikauskas's words to kapakrokas]

[kapakrokas, bound and chained, is taken by the rutts to cacapojas as they seize and plunder the city; [chief priest] is tortured into revealing the location where the bodies of previous cacapojan qhapaqs are kept, and kapakrokas is made to watch as the rutts burn them, and [chief priest], on a massive pyre; ljokiacakas is also executed; kapakrokas is then taken to apvaizda, where he and several other captives, as well as a large amount of treasure, are put on a ship sailing to ruttland]

[on the ship, kapakrokas is morose and seasick; he attempts conversation with one of the other captives, who gives his name as tirikas and bitterly reveals that he was a soldier in the andavailan army who - naturally - blames kapakrokas for what has happened; afterwards kapakrokas basically stops trying to socialize, and instead reflects upon the realization that while javarjupankis and his ilk will no doubt be lionized as martyrs, he will be forever remembered as a coward and a traitor regardless of his original goal]

[upon arrival in ruttland, the captives are taken to the court of king kestutis iii algirdas; the other captives are put to use as servants, but kapakrokas is kept in a locked apartment, where he struggles with euclean clothes, food, and customs; kestutis once comes to see him, but kapakrokas does not speak any ruttish and is not exactly in the mood to converse; in spite of this, he periodically has kapakrokas brought out into the court, dressed in ill-fitting euclean finery, as an exhibit piece]

[kapakrokas apologizes to tirikas, who notes that the apology is basically worthless but does at least start tolerating kapakrokas]

[some time in the winter, kapakrokas is once again summoned to the court; this time, however, he and the other captives are dressed in mock cutinsuan finery and plundered jewelry, with kapakrokas dressed as a qhapaq the other captives playing the role of his servants; as they wait in the wings, kestutis addresses a large party - including ambassadors from povelia, gaullica, and cislania - and proclaims that while gaullica and povelia can show off great wealth from their new asterian domains, ruttland has the unique privilege of being able to present to them the last emperor of cutinsua, at which point kapakrokas and the captives are paraded out as a spectacle]

[by this point kapakrokas is deeply homesick, literally sick due to euclea's cold weather, and utterly humiliated; one evening, he asks tirikas to leave his door unlocked, to which tirikas agrees, then adds that tirikas - who has learned some ruttish - should inform the court that, when he dies, kapakrokas wishes for his body to be returned to his homeland; tirikas nods in understanding]

[during the middle of the night, kapakrokas sneaks through the palace until he finds a stairwell which leads him to the palace roof; wordlessly, he jumps off of the roof]

[suddenly, the film cuts back to the skeleton in the world history museum; a tour guide, speaking in gaullican, briefly tells a group of tourists that the skeleton belonged to a cutinsuan who was brought to euclea by the ruttish before directing their attention towards some golden artifacts nearby]

Cast

• [x] as Kapakrokas, qhapaq of Čačapojas
• [x] as Ljokiačakas, qhapaqpa rantin (chief minister) of Čačapojas
• [x] as Vaskaravalpas, apukispay (chief general) of Čačapojas
• [x] as Javarjupankis, hanan qhapaq of Cutinsua and qhapaq of Andavaila
• [x] as Tupakarančas, brother of Javarjupankis and governor of Oruras
• [x] as Kavotoronkas, apukispay of Andavaila
• [x] as Jurgis Leikauskas, Ruttish soldier and užkariautojas
• [x] as Anacaona, daughter of a Nati chieftain, "given" to the Rutts as a translator
• [x] as Tirikas, an Andavailan soldier later taken as a captive to Ruttland

The film also features [x] as [tbd], Čačapojan envoy to Andavaila; [x] as [tbd], chief priest of Čačapojas; [x] as [tbd], uncle of Javarjupankis and chief priest of Andavaila; [x] as Aklasisa, an Andavailan priestess said to have the gift of prophecy; Koljavazas, an advisor and translator in service to Javarjupankis; [x] as Kamjanjavis, another Andavailan general; [x] as Koja Azarpajas, wife of Javarjupankis; [x] as Kusiqujluras, the eldest sister of Javarjupankis, later forced to marry Leikauskas; [x] as Kusirimajas, wife of Tupakarančas; [x] as Atavjupankis, qhapaq of Suljanas and an ally of Kapakrokas; [x] as Vajnakapakas, qhapaq of Akarajas and another of Kapakrokas's allies; [x] as [tbd], an envoy sent by Vajnakapakas to Čačapojas for the initial meeting between Kapakrokas and Leikauskas; [x] as Ninanamaras, qhapaq of Lambajekė, the only qhapaq to remain loyal to Andavaila; [x] as Mindaugas Sidaravičius, Leikauskas's aide-de-camp; [x] and [x] as Pilypas Murauskas and Mykolas Basanavičius, two of Leikauskas's key subordinates; [x] as [tbd], the Sotirian priest accompanying the užkariautojai; [x] as Juozapas Petravičius, castellan of Apvaizda; [x] as Henrikas Klimauskas, the užkariautojas to whom Anacaona was "given"; [x] as Paulius Vilniškis, the užkariautojas tasked by Leikauskas with taking a shipment of treasure and captives back to Ruttland; [x] as Kestutis III Algirdas, king of Ruttland; and [x] as a tour guide at the Museum of World History in Wiesstadt.

Additionally, [x], [x], and [x] appear as envoys from Gaullica, Povelia, and Cislania respectively visiting the Ruttish court.

Production

Historical accuracy

[anacaona did not speak quechua]

[several individuals whose real-world fates are unknown have fates decided for them in the movie]

[tirikas is fictional]

Release

[release date]

Reception

Box office

[release in aucuria]

[release internationally]

Critical response

[crit resp]

General reception

[general resp]

[contro over museum framing device?]

Accolades

Nominations

• 83rd Montecara Film Festival