The Cinematheque

Bergman’s first documentary feature offers a fond look at his beloved Fårö, the remote Swedish island in the Baltic Sea where he made his home and shot several of his most notable works (including Through a Glass Darkly, Hour of the Wolf, The Shame, and The Passion of Anna). Photographed by Sven Nykvist, the film is a straightforward and surprisingly political portrait of the island’s inhabitants and a traditional way of life in danger of disappearing. Swedish critics heralded it as one of Bergman’s best films. It become an ongoing project akin to Michael Apted’s Up series when Bergman released a follow-up, Fårö Document 1979, ten years later, and intended another for 1989 (the third instalment was never made). Bergman would die on Fårö in 2007, at the age of 89.