Set in the thirteenth century, Vlácil's masterpiece Markéta Lazarová plays out a parallel between tribal barbarism and "civilized" brutality with a passionate intensity that looks forward to Paradjanov's Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors. Filmed under treacherous conditions in the mountains of southern Bohemia, it recreates its medieval milieu with a dazzling visual sensibility and an uncanny realism, both physical and psychological. The story is one of rivalry and revenge between a clan of brutal robbers and the family of a thieving squire. A liaison between the squire's daughter and the demonic clan's son, who kidnaps her on the eve of her entry into a convent, has ominous consequences. Vlácil creates a narrative that is more poetic than it is linear, like a dream of an ancient age.