Fårö Document 1979

Bergman produced two films about his beloved island Fårö, where he made his home and which served as the setting for (many of his) films. In 1969, troubled by the island's disappearing traditions and the exodus of its young people to the mainland, Bergman made a surprisingly direct and political document about Fårö's importance?.Ten years later he took a second look at the situation in his second Fårö Document. (A third was planned for1989 but was not made.) The update is surprisingly optimistic, with several remarkable "then and now" juxtapositions. The unhappy teenagers about to decamp for Stockholm in the first film turn out to have settled into the quiet isolated Fårö life. Interweaving scenes of extraordinary natural beauty with interviews and rigorous sequences depicting everyday chores, customs, and rituals on Fårö, Bergman develops a complex, understated, and loving portrait of his tiny island.-James Quandt

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