WILD STRAWBERRIES
aka SMULTRONSTÄLLET

Year: 1957
UK: BFI / Gala Film Distributors
Cast: Victor Sjöström, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Jullan Kindahl, Folke Sundquist, Björn Bjelfvenstam, Naima Wifstrand, Gunnel Broström, Gertrud Fridh, Sif Ruud, Gunnar Sjöberg, Max von Sydow, Åke Fridell, Yngve Nordwall, Per Sjöstrand, Gio Petre, Gunnel Lindblom, Maud Hansson, Ann-Marie Wiman, Eva Noree, Lena Bergman, Monica Ehrling, Peder Hellman, Ulf Johansson, Göran Lundquist, Vendela Rudbäck, Per Skogsberg, Helge Wulff
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Country: Sweden
UK: 93 mins
UK Certificate: PG
UK Release Date: 1 January 2003

Synopsis

Bergman was at a critical stage of his career when he made what many consider his richest film, WILD STRAWBERRIES. His love life was in a mess, and he was skirmishing constantly with his family. Overworked, and on doctor's recommendation, he entered a clinic for psychosomatic disorders; there, the screenplay for STRAWBERRIES took shape. It's a film that ferrets into Bergman's psyche, a film that merges dreams, nightmares, and everyday life with instinctive skill.

Victor Sjöström, one of the great pillars of Scandinavian silent cinema, plays Isak Borg, a distinguished professor in his late 70s who must travel to Lund to receive an honorary degree. During the journey he finds himself forced to confront the tribulations and failings of his early years. Never sentimental, always understanding, Bergman explores like a surgeon what Jung called the 'dark cellar of the subconscious,' emerging finally into the light and, in so doing, reconciling himself with his own parents.