Seen through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander (Bertil Guve), we follow the highs and lows of the expansive Ekdahl family during the early twentieth century in Sweden. In the midst of their lavish Christmas celebrations, with a performance of the nativity at the family-run theatre, we begin to witness the gradually changing relationships, conflicts and difficulties at the intergenerational heart of bourgeois affluence. With a Dickensian eye for detail alongside Bergman’s spiritual anguish and enchantment, the drama is at once epic and intimate, drawing us through the personal into the transcendent.
Originally intended as his farewell to cinema, in its culmination of human drama, sensual colours, and spiritual questioning, it glows with the poetic insight of Bergman’s best work and represents a visually ravishing testament to his unique mastery as a director.