Sultans, Viziers and Alchemists

Winter 1451 - The territorial gains of the Ottoman Turks have pushed the once powerful Byzantine Empire into a small enclave around its capital of Constantinople. Less than 150 miles away,Sultan Murat II rules in Adrianople over a prosperous and expanding realm. His sudden death brings back to the throne his disgraced son, Mehmet. The young Mehmet is determined to assert himself as the new Sultan and conquer Constantinople. His plans face resistance from his Prime Minister Halil-Pasha who wants to maintain peace with the Byzantine Christians. In Venice, a young physician and alchemist, Mario Orsini finds himself on the wrong side of the struggle between the Church and the emerging rationalism of the Renaissance, as the Inquisition seeks to extinguish scientific inquiry. He is forced into exile to the Venetian enclave in Constantinople. Based on pain-staking historical research, Brendan Ray brings to life the politically charged drama of the 15th century, as one empire dies giving life to another.