Redbad

Redbad (2018) is a Dutch historical epic directed by Roel Reiné, available to watch online on iFILM. Set in the early eighth century, it follows Redbad — son of the Frisian king Aldgisl — from boyhood warrior to the man who led the last major pagan resistance against Frankish expansion into northern Europe.

Gijs Naber carries the film as the adult Redbad, while Jonathan Banks plays one of the Christian missionaries pressing south. The 160-minute runtime encompasses tribal warfare, political betrayal, and the collision of two cosmologies — a world where the old gods are not myth but daily reality, now threatened by something organised, patient, and backed by Frankish steel.

Backed by the Dutch Film Fund, Redbad was the most expensive Dutch production of its era. It plays best as a story told from the losing side — the pagan north as it actually understood itself, not as a backdrop for Viking-hero mythology. Stream Redbad (2018) online on iFILM.