Clearly prompted bythe recent European experience of World War II, Barabbas is based onPä;r Lagerkvist's novel about the imaginary fate of Barabbas, thethief whose life was spared in exchange for that of Jesus Christ.Product of a violent childhood, "He is seen as a sympathetic,doomed character, born, like Erik XIV (subject of KarinMånsdotter), out of tune with his time°The paradox of the noveland the film is Barabbas's change of faith, which takes place during hisimprisonment in the copper mines. At the end, he is unable to reconcilethe strange non-violence of the new faith with the more instinctivepractices of his upbringing." (Peter Cowie) "For Sjöberg,Barabbas is not a story about faith and doubts°but more a film about thesearch of a human being°. The destiny of Barabbas is actually timeless;he could just as well represent the human of today, who is pulled intoimportant situations but not able to master them." (Gerd Osten,Sweden, 1956)