An interesting, if somewhat loose adaptation of “Ring of the Nibelung” saga and the legend of Siegfried and Brunhild. The story incorporates the main story beats from the legend with the young Siegfried (Benno Fürmann) becoming a hero in the Kingdom of Burgundy after slaying the dragon Fafnir and claiming the golden horde and the cursed Ring of the Nibelung. Siegfried is in love the warrior Queen of Iceland, Brunhild (Kristanna Loken), but before the lovers are be reunited the jealous Kriemhild (Alicia Witt) tricks Siegfried into drinking a love potion that makes him fall in love with her and forget Brunhild, leading to dark and deadly consequences. I watched this multi-national co-production under the title “Sword of Xanten”, one of the many titles it has gone under. Although there are a number of nice cinematic touches the production retains a made-for-television feel throughout and it is obviously limited by its budget. Director Uli Edel wisely focuses in on the characters rather than delivering an effects spectacular – that said Fafnir is nicely realised and works quite well. The pacing is decent with little time to dwell on particular plot points as the action skips from one dramatic development to the next. Kristanna Loken is beautiful and powerful as Brunhild with Alicia Witt, unfortunately, portraying Kriemhild as overly sappy. Benno Fürmann gives an eccentric, one-dimensional performance as Siegfried, with his inflected accent giving his line-readings an odd air and his overall approach appearing overly detached. For many this will be a poor central performance, but I rather enjoyed the cold, distant oddness of it. Ilan Eshkeri delivers a majestic and heroic score that integrates well with the overall feel of the film. There are many elements in “Sword of Xanten” that are poor and don’t really work, but that said it is a delightfully engaging effort, delivered with a certain sense of style within what is an obviously constrained budget. ( )