Following the international success of The Seventh Seal, Bergman turned to this medieval folk-tale about a farming family's revenge of a brutal rape and murder. The tale unfolds with a biblical simplicity and Bergman's visual storytelling (his first collaboration with sacred cinematographer Sven Nykvist) is so powerful and sustained that one could turn the sound off and still follow the story. Each image foretells, recalls or incorporates another image, from the opening shot of a pregnant daughter to magical minutiae like a toad in bread or a crucifix. The religious process of symbolization in Bergman's medieval morality plays never completely obscures his characteristic agnostic questioning, because the director balances the visions against his modern psychological perception. Like Kurosawa's Rashomon, which it strongly resembles, The Virgin Spring raises moral questions that elevate the film above the violent story. -Tom Kemper