Smultronstället

As part of our series featuring film requests from the neighborhood, we’re showing SMULTRONSTÄLLET in November. Isak (Victor Sjöström), a medical professor who lives in seclusion, drives from Uppsala to Lund to be awarded an honorary degree 50 years after receiving his doctorate. His daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin), who has been staying with him because of her marital problems, accompanies him. Other people join them in the spacious car for short or longer stretches of the journey; for example, the young Sara (Bibi Andersson) who is on her way to Italy, accompanied by two men whom she is struggling to choose between. The night before the departure, Isak had a disturbing dream that caused the first cracks to appear in the facade of principled integrity and emotional detachment he has maintained so strictly. The physical journey triggers a journey into his inner life. Revisiting places from his childhood and reliving painful and formative episodes from his past, Isak slowly begins to change. (al)