The basis for the associative spectrum of the film is provided by one of the remaining manuscripts about combat swordsmanship, the “Flos Duellatorum”, written by the Italian master of fencing Fioire dei Liberi around 1410.

The basis for the fabula consists of actions of the characters promoted into a metaphor. A series of colorful “actors” appear in the film, for example, A Civilian Entity, A Fencer, A Magician, Knights, Soldiers...

The above characters, through their relationships, constitute an entwined web of comical and bizarre that illustrate the film’s basic subject.

In directorial and structural sense, “The Flower of Battle” is a succession of associative metaphorical scenes open to the audience, aimed at creating an “atmosphere” and an “impression" of the film rather than linear dramatization and/or forced explanations.

The set of the film is made of quotations, visual paraphrases of baroque theatre, architectural imaginations and Piranesi’s carvings, with the sole function of supporting the associative structure of the film. The role of an occasional but important narrator is performed by the Magician character who, beside quoting parts of “Flos Duellatorum”, reads excerptions from the texts by Machiavelli and Plato.

At the end of the film, the Civilian Entity becomes an antipode of itself, a symbol of final triumph of the collective over the individual.