Sylvie Testud flashes bare breast in dramatic stage performance(1:15)

The work depicts the last hours of the life of the national heroine of France, the pictures flashing through her mind before her death. Joan of Arc, a young peasant girl who led the struggle of the French people against the English invaders (15th century), was betrayed by the church and condemned as a heretic to be burned. The monk Brother Dominic reads to Jeanne, tied to a stake, the book of her life. It seems to her that judges are not people, but animals. On the judge's benches are pigs, donkeys and rams. Jeanne's fate is decided by a card game of four kings: three of them are the rulers of England, France and Burgundy, the fourth is death itself. The girl sees images of her native village, a vision: Archangel Michael hands her a sword with which she will liberate her homeland. The book of her life is closed. The priest tries in vain to convince her to renounce the “heresy.” The flames rise higher and higher, she hears the voices of the sky and dies, giving her life for the freedom of her homeland.