A Masterpiece!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

And by the way, the fall of WHICH exactly "male" empire? Since each and every empire was, and is, an inherently "male" one - that is envisioned, planed, executed, enlarged and protected by warriors, i.e. BY MEN!