An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill 1983

In 1551, Cracow, the king buries his wife, Queen Barbara Radziwiłł, and leads a funeral procession toward Wilno to lay her to rest there, a journey that runs through memory and desire. A court poet, whose identity remains hidden, travels with the cortege and seems to nurse unspoken feelings for the late Queen; Sigismund Augustus asks him to craft an epitaph, yet the words stubbornly fail him. The tale unfolds through a tapestry of flashbacks that reveal how this royal romance began, faced peril, and left a lasting imprint on the throne and the realm.

The story traces the young Sigismund Augustus, who is co-ruling with his father, Sigismund I, a man whose reign is about to end. The political stage is crowded with competing loyalties and the weight of dynastic lines. Elizabeth of Austria, the young queen who accompanies the king to Wilno, is portrayed as gravely ill from epilepsy and unable to bear a child, a condition that shapes the king’s decisions and his distance from her. Elizabeth’s fate accelerates a shift in power and affection within the court, while the king’s mother, Queen Bona Sforza, watches closely and weighs every move.

In Gieranony, amidst the forests and memories of Lithuania, Sigismund Augustus meets a young widow, Barbara Radziwiłł, and the two embark on an affair that transcends the boundaries of court life. Their bond deepens even after Elizabeth joins her husband in Wilno, and soon Elizabeth dies, a turning point that leaves Barbara newly central to the king’s life. The relationship sparks a confrontation with tradition and the political machinery of the crown.

On Sigismund’s birthday, Barbara becomes a focal point of court intrigue as her relatives urge the marriage to cement the Radziwiłł name. Yet crossing the line into wedlock without coronation brings the risk of alienating nobles and destabilizing the throne. The king refuses to abandon Barbara, and Bona’s objections intensify as she warns that legitimacy and succession hinge on a crowned consort.

The narrative follows Barbara as she becomes pregnant twice, though heartbreak shadows the pregnancies with miscarriages. The Sejm in Piotrków becomes a crucible where nobles publicly oppose the royal match and demand that Sigismund annul his marriage. Piotr Kmita, a figure among the nobles, voices strong resistance to the mésalliance, while the king remains resolute, even threatening abdication if the assembly cannot accept his Queen.

Despite the mounting opposition, Barbara is ultimately crowned, a historic moment that temporarily steadies the realm but soon tests her health. In quiet recollections, Barbara speaks of childhood days in Lithuania and of the happier moments she shared with Augustus back in Wilno, underscoring how memory sustains love even as illness tightens its grip. Yet in the face of illness, Barbara’s wish remains steadfast and intimate: she asks to be buried in Wilno, not in Poland, so that the place of their first bond becomes her final resting ground.

In the present, as Barbara’s funeral procession approaches Wilno, Sigismund experiences a haunting vision: his wife and her younger self seem to come together in a moment of reconciliation and peace, a reconciliation that history itself could not grant but that memory preserves. The film closes on that dreamlike image, leaving the king with a sense of closure and a reminder of the power of love to endure beyond politics and time.

• Barbara Radziwiłł, Anna Dymna

• Queen Bona Sforza, Aleksandra Śląska

• Elizabeth of Austria, Bożena Adamek

• Piotr Kmita, Leonard Pietraszak

• An anonymous court poet, Krzysztof Kolberger

• Zygmunt I Stary, Zdzisław Koźień

• Zygmunt II August, Jerzy Zelnik

• Katrina, Hanna Stankówna

• The actor playing the line of the king’s life (and other roles) remains a memory, while the living ones carry the weight of history.