Ducky (movie)

The beginning of our era is approximately 87 years old . Rome is expanding its domain. The Dacian state , located on the slopes of the mountains along the Danube , is the new goal of the Empire . Legions of Romans against a tiny army of Dacians, ready to die for their homeland and freedom, not accepting the conditions of the invaders. The war that Emperor Domitian brought to the land of King Decebalus will cost the Romans dearly. The Dacian fortress fell, but the last battle is yet to come ...

Prologue

Legions of the Romans lined up near the city of Argidar, ready to attack. Representatives of both sides presented conditions to each other: the Romans, who declared themselves rulers of the world, offer the Dacians to voluntarily open the gates of the city in exchange for life and freedom. Dacians declare that the Romans will become so if they subdue them.

Main story

Young Dacians, Cotizo and Meda, brother and sister, are hunting deer in the forest. Soon they find him. Meda says that Kotizo killed him, his brother admits that his sister shoots well, and in response he hears that she taught him how to hold a bow. Soon, Oluper arrives on a horse and says that an important event will take place in Argidar next week. Kotizo guessed that a competition of young soldiers would take place, after which he jumped on a dark horse and, together with Meda on a white horse, left for the house. Meda is ahead of him, claiming that his horse is no worse than her, only she rides better. Then she gives him her horse.

A Roman camp has been set up along the Danube. There is a contest of young people. Pretoria Prefect Cornelius Fusk wins the struggle of the young Roman, then tries to show how to properly throw a spear , but because of an old head wound, his vision problems begin and he cannot do it. At this time, the Rhine Legion arrives, led by the legate Severus, a friend and disciple of Fusk. The prefect offers the North to throw a spear, the legate does it and falls into the very bullseye. Then both military leaders talk about the fact that in three days the emperor Domitian will come here, but he arrives the same evening. Inside the tent between Senator Attius (father of the North), North, Fusk and Domitian there is a discussion about the attack on Dacia, the emperor decides to immediately cross the Danube. After the Danube crosses, Attius in the forest is killed by one of the Dacians from the bow, taking personal items from the victim. Domitian promises the North that the barbarians (ie Dacians) “will recognize the wrath and revenge of Rome.”

At this time, a contest of young people begins in Argidar, in which Kotizo, the son of King Decebala, also participates. The king announces that there are only five rivals left and calls on everyone to be courageous in the fight. In the competition for chopping off chocks with a sword for a gallop, two rivals lose, then the next competition begins: to hit a target with a bow. Another participant drops out and before the last test on the horse comes the duck who killed Attius. He reports to the king about the work done and hands over the captured things. Decebalus declares that "this is the only Roman who should not have been killed." It becomes clear that the war will begin. Meda asks Cotizo to cede victory to another, but her brother remains inexorable. The last contest was that both opponents with blindfolds should keep their left hand on the block with their fingers spread, and with their right hand beat with knives between their fingers in synchronism with the blows of the drum , the frequency of which gradually increases. When the drum calmed down, it turns out that Kotizo's rival injured his finger with a knife and thus the victory in the youth competition was won by the son of Decebala.

Decebal gathered a council of elders, announcing that the prefect Cornelius Fusk leads to Dacia 12 Roman legions of 6,000 soldiers each (72 thousand) and sets everyone tasks. He orders the old men, women and children to be evacuated to the mountains, and Oluper to keep the Romans and only then leave.

The assault on Argidar begins. At first, the Dacians took the initiative and the Romans retreated. Former rival Cotizo says that they had already fled, but a duck standing next to him answered that this was only for a while and showed the young man what huge troops were away (soon the young man was killed in battle). The Romans again stormed the fortress, using siege weapons , towers and rams . Cornelius Fusk bursts with cavalry into the burnt gates of Argidar, the centurion Mark saves his life. The battle continues until the evening, the emperor arrives in the city, announcing to the North that his father Attius will be avenged today, after which he orders the captives to be brought. Only one duck, the murderer of Attius, was captured (the North himself did not find out about this). Cornelius Fusk invites him to give Decebalus, but he spits in the face of the prefect and receives a hilt of the sword in the face. Then he wrests a sword from the hands of a Roman who hit him and commits suicide , remaining faithful to his king to the end.

A delegation from King Decebal arrives at Domitian and brings him gifts: a mouse , a frog , a bird (all in cages), a quiver with arrows and a plow share . Fusk interpreted this as a sign that the Dacians were ready to submit, the clerk wrote down everything. Then Domitian sent a legate of the North with an answer to Decebal. The legate announced that Domitian would arrive in the capital of Dacia to crown him, and the senate would call him a friend of Rome for life. Decebal announced that according to the ancient Dacian custom, everyone who comes to them is a guest (he also mentions that the god of winemaking Dionysus was born on the territory of Dacia). The feast begins. The North, sitting next to Decebal, conducts a conversation with him, later the Dacian invites the legate to the dungeon, where the ashes of the famous Dacians rest in burial urns , also shows an empty urn where the ashes of Zoltes, known as Attius, the father of the North, should rest. It turns out that Zoltes went to Rome 40 years ago under the name of the Roman patrician Attius, who lived in Moesia . Decebal every year sent Attius a whole ship loaded with gold, and he informed the king of the Dacians about everything that was planned in Rome (in fact, Attius was a spy of the Dacians in the rear of the enemy). Thus, it turns out that Attius is not a Roman, but a duck, and why the North could not understand why his father did not want to fight against his own . Decebal explains that Attius did not give his son to study the art of war in the best army in the world so that he would conquer the lands of his ancestors and that one day he would reveal this secret to him. Leaving Severus in confusion, Decebalus meets with the High Priest . He offers the king of the Dacians to pay off the Romans with gold, but Decebalus with contempt rejects this offer and decides to fight with Rome for the freedom of his land. The priest says that in this case, the ancient law of the Dacians requires a messenger to be sent to Zamolksis . Decebalus returns to the throne room and gives Sever the true message of the gifts that were presented to Domitian, which meant that if the Romans walked on their land, the Dacians would fight with them to the very end.

Since Decebalus chose the war with Rome, the law demanded that the winner of the youth competition be sacrificed to Zamolxis. In the contest, then defeated his son Kotizo, who now had to die. The priest announced that Cotizo was the most worthy of all the sons of Dacia and that Zamolxis would hear him. Decebalus told his son that he wants rain, eternal peace between the Dacians and victory over the enemy . Kotizo lay on the altar, then the priest's assistants threw him on the spears dug into the ground. The high priest, having put the earth in Cotizo's left hand, announced to everyone that the messenger had already left and that it was necessary to rejoice. After the sacrifice of his son, Decebal drank wine, broke a jug and began to laugh. A chain reaction has begun. Then he asked everyone if his son was worthy of being heard by Zamolksis and ordered to rejoice. Literally festivities began. Meda approached her father and a conversation took place between them about the sacrifice of Cotizo. Meda renounces faith in Zamolksis and declares that this law is bad, but Decebalus answers that he was bequeathed to them by their ancestors, as well as the land on which they live, after which the king ordered her to leave. Meda took two horses and left for a house in the mountains. At this time, a thunderstorm broke out with heavy rain, the Dacians rejoiced. But the Romans in the mountains from the rain had a bad time: the mountain river became stormy, it is extremely difficult to cross it, it is also difficult to carry siege weapons through the mud. The approaching Cornelius Fusk forces the troops to move faster. He gives the same order to the North. Then he learns that his two legions (12 thousand soldiers) were detained by Domitian in Argidar taken from the Dacians. Having come to him personally, Fusk discovers that the emperor did this for his own safety and that the prefect's excessive caution and all the mystery frighten him. Then he offers him to go smash the Dacians.

The Rhine Legion stumbles upon the Dacians in the mountains. This was reported to Fusk. Indignant that the North did not give the order to attack, the prefect personally appeared to the North and laughed him because "the best cavalry of the empire was frightened of some barbarians there . " The North objected that until reconnaissance returned, he would not attack, but the ambitious Fusk remained inexorable. The north invites him to look at the rocks, but Fusk, due to vision problems, answers that he does not see anything and again gives the order to attack. Mark heard all this. North did not dare to disobey his superior and led the troops into the attack. The famous Battle of Tapai begins. Dacians, observing the movement of the Romans, are well aware that the cavalry is moving towards its own destruction. When the Romans approached the rocks, the Dacians began to shell them with bows, then turned into the gorge. The Romans rushed after them, but stones fell on them from the rocks. Decebalus personally led the troops into the attack, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Rhine Legion, forcing them to flee with shame, and also captured their battle flag (eagle).

Fusk lined up the surviving soldiers in a square. He rebuked them sharply and severely for cowardice, shameful flight, the loss of the eagle, which had once been handed to them by Julius Caesar himself and casting to the fate of the legate of the North. Based on the totality of the above and Roman laws, the Rhine Legion ceased to exist and decimation began - the execution by lot of every tenth warrior. Among them was also the centurion Mark, with whom Fusk opened an account: the prefect destroyed his centurion, as a witness, in order to avoid scandal, since Mark knew that Fusk had ordered the attack.

At this time, the surviving North got out from under the felled trees and came to the house of Meda in the mountains. Meda, having decided that a Roman is wandering near her house, shoots him with a bow. The armor, having taken a hit, saves the North from death, but nevertheless, from wounding, it loses consciousness. Meda dragged him home and began to look after him. When he recovered, she brought Oluper and he invited him to go to Decebal. Meda gave the horse Kotizo to the North. North came to Decebal. The Dacian king asked the North to convince Domitian to start negotiations, but the North answered that this was impossible, since the troops had not been paid for a long time and they could rebel. Then Decebalus liberated the North.

After meeting with Decebal, North bursts into the tent of Cornelius Fusk, who wonders how he survived then in the mountains. Between them there is a conflict on the grounds that Fusk destroyed the legion of the North. It turns out that Fusk executed Mark because he knew a lot, that Cornelius created two emperors - Vespasian and Domitian, and that under Attius he wished the emperor defeat. The North refuses to support Fusk in his plans, then the impudent prefect tries to destroy his legate by throwing a spear at him, but again, because of vision problems, he misses. Then he converges with the North on swords and eventually dies. The approaching Domitian calls the North the governor of Dacia and orders the Legions to be led to the Dacians.

Before the last, most terrible battle, a duel between two leaders took place: King Decebal agreed with the governor of Dacia Sever. The latter succumbed to the king. Before his death, he said that "this is all he managed to do for him - to succumb in battle." Both rati launched an offensive, but due to the fact that the Romans commander died, they were defeated in this battle. The film ends with the plot of the battle of the Dacians and the Romans, depicted on the column of Trajan in Rome.

• Amza Pell - Tsar Decebal (Soviet dubbing - Vladimir Emelyanov ), the main character of the film, Tsar of the Dacians, commander
• Marie-José Nat - Meda (Soviet dubbing - Maria Vinogradova ), the oldest daughter of Decebal, sister of Cotison
• Alexander Kheresku - Kotizon (Soviet dubbing - Ruslan Akhmetov ), the youngest son of Tsar Decebal, brother of Meda; sacrificed by his own father to the god Zamolksisu , according to ancient law, requiring to do so in case of choice of war
• Mircea Albulescu - Oluper (Soviet dubbing - Nikolai Grabbe ), adviser to Decebal, governor of the Dacians
• Emil Botta - High Priest (Soviet dubbing - Ivan Ryzhov ), led the sacrifice of Cotison
• Geo Barton - Attius (Soviet dubbing - Vladimir Balashov ), Roman senator, duck named Zoltes. He was killed in the forest by one of the Dacians who mistook him for the Roman. Because of belonging to his native people, Decebalus called him "the only Roman whom he did not want death"
• György Kovács - Emperor Domitian (Soviet dubbing - Arkady Tolbuzin ), arrogant, fond of poetry
• Georges Marshall - pretoria prefect Cornelius Fusk (Soviet dubbing - Oleg Mokshantsev ), Roman prefect, leader of the Roman army. Ambitious and ambitious. When the North refused to support him in his plans, he attempted to kill him, which forced him (i.e., the North) to fight and was killed
• Pierre Brice - North (Soviet dubbing - Vladimir Prokofiev ), Roman legate (rank below the prefect). After he learned from Decebala that Attius (father) is not a Roman, but a duck, he immediately did not like the war. At the beginning of the last battle during the fight with Decebal, he gave himself to kill (“That's all I managed to do for you!”) And thereby helped to win that battle
• Sergiu Nikolaescu - Mark (aka film director) , Roman centurion (rank below the legate), a brave and strong warrior. He was executed by order of Fusk during decimation because he “knew a lot”
• Nicolae Secearianu - Decebalus envoy

The film is dubbed by the Mosfilm film studio. The dubbing director is Evgeny Alekseev.

The film " Column ", which is a sequel to this film, tells about the further struggle of the Dacians with Rome .

• " Ducky " (eng.) On the Internet Movie Database