Considered to beSjöberg's most personal film, The Island is an allegorical drama set in theStockholm archipelago, where inhabitants learn that their island home is to beevacuated and turned into an army gunnery range. In the crisis, the localnobleman feels isolated and moreover is accused of murder when the pastordisappears, having gone into hiding to rejuvenate his faith. Sjöberg wrote,"One day the central character realizes that he is speaking to deaf ears; noone understands the significance of his message. He gets the impression he isliving between two dead continents, between the culture and the tradition he hasinherited and whose language he speaks, and the living dead who move around himlike sleep-walkers without suspecting or being irritated by their isolation°. Theviolence in the world, which until now had been at a safe distance, is suddenlyon his doorstep."