Tadas Blinda (1972)

This movie is a story of the legendary Lithuanian peasant- Tadas Blinda (1846-1877), a Lithuanian folk hero of the 19th century often compared to Robin Hood. He is shown as a leader of serfs battling and ridiculing the Polish landlords and the Russian Empire that governed Lithuania, Lithuania after the law about the end of serfdom. The movie is a an intense drama with a mix of cruelty and love, comic situations and jokes, heroism and treason. In the first part of the movie the landlord's daughter returns from St. Peterburg with lots of positive ideas in her head, willing to find a more human way to co-live with their peasants but her family isn't that much open-minded and liberal. Tadas gets a message that his father died while working in the landlord's fields but he can't attend the funeral because he's ordered to give a carriage ride to his "master's" family. The horses "get frightened" in the middle of the river and the carriage breaks. Tadas Blinda goes under the punishment. Fellow peasants are told to whip him under the threat of weapons. Reluctant at first, they still obey. The night comes, Tadas recovers from injuries, gathers a group of loyal peasants and starts his revenge...