The Last Emperor of Skalan

The Last Emperor of Skalan is a 1970 epic war biopic film about friendship, loss, identity, and sacrifice during the fall of the Skalan Empire and the Adamari invasion of Skalan, following Harschmacht Vel Hapsbicht, the final emperor of the Skalan Empire before it's collapse. It won several awards and earned praise for authenticity and cinematography. The film is over 3.5 hours long and is often shown in two parts.

## Plot

The film intercuts between two story threads, the first shows Harschmacht Vel Hapsbicht as a child living an idyllic carefree life in the Verboten Palace in Skalan. The other narrative follows the impoverished and disillusioned adult Harschmacht, now going by Hark Meier, as an adult in the chaotic Vanguardist Skalan.

The story opens with the young child ruler at the funeral of his mother, the Dowager Queen of Skalan. He is pampered by his retinue of retainers and wants for nothing. A series of scenes show the opulence of the Verboten Palace and one in particular follows the young emperor enjoying a festival of lights held in the palace courtyard. The scene is happy at first, with the emperor running through the parade grounds and around the guards and performers, however it takes a dark turn when he stops and notices one of the performers wincing in pain while trying to perform a dance. The audience sees drops of blood on the back of the linen shirt of the dancer and it is implied that the performers have been beaten recently. The emperor is then carried away by his guardians.

Meanwhile in the adult story, Hark is living a simple life in a small apartment in western Skalan when he is met by two Militia officers at his door with draft papers. When he resists they take him by force into a truck in the street with other recent draftees. He is recognized by an older man in the truck but the gentleman agrees to keep his identity a secret, and cautions Hark to do the same, warning of what the Vangaurdists would do if they found out.

Back in the young emperor story the the emperor is now 12, his young friend Albrecht sneaks him away from his teacher one day and shows him a newspaper with a report of the ongoing Lilac War. Harschmacht does not understand at first but the older Albrecht explains that Skalan is at war and losing badly. The emperor is confident that Skalan will win, as he has seen the huge army (referring to his ceremonial guards who often parade in the palace courtyard). Albrecht insists that Skalan will be conquered and the two fight, with the emperor finally shouting that Albrecht has just been told to be his friend or else he will be beaten, revealing that the young Harschmacht has learned more about his situation and status. The fight ends when the emperor's teacher finds the two, and has Albrecht taken by the guards. The audience does not see Albrecht again but it is implied that he is killed offscreen.

Adult Hark is subjected to a brutal but rudimentary boot camp. The conscripts are drilled with wooden rifles and practice guerilla warfare. The two soldiers who conscripted Hark are reintroduced as Elver, a young nationalist, and Borman, an older (roughly Hark's age) grizzled soldier, who is implied to be the more ideologically motivated of the two as he is often seen giving Vanguardist speeches and has a broken chain tattoo on his arm. Borman is tougher on the conscripts and embodies a drill sergeant personality. At one point Borman berates Hark for dropping his wooden rifle in the mud, and punishes him by taking his straight razor, the one personal item that Hark had managed to keep when he was conscripted.

The young emperor meanwhile has grown bored of life in the palace and endeavours to explore the world outside. His teacher shows him magazines and films from the outside world but nothing relating to news of the war or current affairs. One day when he sees a plume of smoke in the sky over the courtyard he once again manages to sneak away from the watchful gaze of his teacher and guardians to peek through the parapets of the outer wall. The scene in the streets below is nothing like the pictures he has seen, amidst the dirt of the city he sees a protest being broken up by Imperial soldiers who open fire into the crowd. (it is not directly stated but implied that this event is a reference to the Red Day Massacre of Nationalists, Socialists, and Vanguardists).

The young emperor story is interrupted when adult Hark is awoken by Elver, and handed a real rifle and bag of ammo. Hark and the crew of conscripted soldiers are told by Borman that Adamar has invaded and they are now at war, his speech is interrupted by a flight of F1 Liberators that fly low over the camp and are cheered on by the soldiers. Borman, speaks with Hark and we see that despite his initial hostility, Borman has shown respect for Hark throughout his training. Borman tells Hark that he has been assigned as the platoon's radio operator and they are to join a unit of troops defending an airbase, a supposedly safe assignment. They march for several days through rough terrain, at one point encountering a column of Adamari tanks moving on the road. Their platoon manages to hide from the column and radio its location to command. They then wait in silence for what feels like hours, before they hear the familiar roar of an F1 liberator overhead as the tank column is destroyed. Their jubilation is short lived however as they watch over a dozen Adamari jet fighters attack the lone F1. The Liberator downs two enemy fighters before it is destroyed. Borman has been watching through binoculars and narrating the dogfight. The pilot of the F1 ejects before his plane explodes, and Borman watches as the parachuting pilot is strafed and killed by the Adamari jets. He says nothing, and simply orders the platoon back on the march, as they walk now soberly past the burned out tanks.

The young emperor meanwhile has realized finally that the Lilac War is truly going terribly for Skalan when he is finally taken out of the Verboten Palace by his teacher. As they depart the palace he sees his formerly disciplined retainers and court performers hastily fleeing the palace as he is carried by pagoda through the city streets. The city itself has deteriorated and panic has set in. When his procession arrives at a military checkpoint they are stopped by soldiers who at first appear to be friendly, but then are revealed to be opportunistic deserters. While his few remaining guards engage in a tense standoff with the deserters (who wish to kidnap the emperor for ransom), the young emperor himself sneaks out of his pagoda and flees into the streets. At first he is lost and quickly grows hungry alone in the city with no experience caring for himself, but he eventually finds his way to a bomb shelter with several dozen other children. He lives there for several days, as the shelter's residence sit listening to a single radio reporting on the war.

The narrative cuts to adult Hark listening to his radio backpack and reporting the news to the rest of his platoon. None of the news is good, and a sense of unease settles in amongs the group. The following morning Hark awakens to find many of the soldiers have deserted, including Elver and the old man who protected his identity early on, and had been deferential to him throughout their training. Hark has now grown closer to Borman who promotes him to sergeant and second in command of what remains of their unit. Hark by this time has grown into a competent soldier and has become more loyal to the militia that initially conscripted him. When their unit finally arrives at the airfield they are to defend, Borman introduces Hark to Ghrei Fahara, the leader of the F1 air wing, (played by himself as a Cameo). Their introduction is short lived however as the base is surprise attacked by Adamari forces. Hark and Borman realize that the attacking tanks are targeting the aircraft on the ground and that they must counterattack in order to allow the aircraft to escape.

As they charge the Adamari tanks, their squad is quickly cut down by machine gun fire, but they manage to distract the attacking tanks away from the runway. Hark, now in a foxhole with a mortally wounded Borman hunker down as they watch the remaining jets take off and escape. Borman turns to Hark and gives him back the gold straight razor that he took from him in training, as Borman points to the beard that Hark has grown and smirks, Hark realizes (as shown through a flashback of the old man in the truck) that Borman took the razor so that no one would recognize his identity. Borman reveals that he knew Hark's identity the whole time, he then tells Hark that he has "earned his worth" and that "he should go and make his own man in himself", a call-back to earlier in the film when Borman used those phrases in his Vanguardist speeches. As Borman dies and Hark is now in command of the squad, with their objective complete and no hope of survival, he orders his troops to surrender to the Adamaris.

Some time later Hark, and the few remaining survivors of his initial squad are interred in a makeshift POW camp. However with the war over and the camps overfull, they are able to easily slip through the perimeter during an Adamari prayer session, during his escape Hark glimpses the old man kneeling with Adamari soldiers, having become a collaborator. As he does he thinks back to his childhood teacher, and the audience sees a memory of the teacher scolding his friend Albrecht, however the memory quickly turns into a happy one as Albrecht and the young emperor laugh as they run away from the teacher and play in the courtyard of the palace. As the memory fades away Hark is boarding a refugee ship in Helmand. We see Hark smiling on the deck of the ship as he pockets the razor, still wearing a beard. As he leans against the railing, the camera pans out to show the ship full of refugees pull out of port, with an FVRC flag waving on its mast.

As the credits roll, photos are shown of the real individuals in the movie, describing the fates of Borman and many of the other conscripts in that squad. The final images show the devastation of the Skalan war, and list the number of civilians killed, and the number of refugees that fled the country in the wake of the Adamari Invasion.