An associate professor in the Scandinavian Department at UC Berkeley, Linda Haverty Rugg has written extensively on Ingmar Bergman.

(Tystnaden). Two sisters, Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) and Ester (Ingrid Thulin), are travelling through an unspecified land on the verge of war. Tanks rumble by as if in preparation for some apocalyptic occasion. Due to Ester's declining health, the sisters and Anna's young son seek refuge in a disused hotel, and it is in this baroque but decrepit setting that illness, desire, and attachment play out in an almost incestuous pact. Controversial in its time for its sexual candidness, the third part of Bergman's “God trilogy” seems enveloped by a muffled fatigue. God has left the building and all that remains is a spiritual hush.