The Virgin Spring (1960)

Essential Viewing

Sweden

Feature Film

Original Title: Jungfrukällan

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Writer: Ulla Isaksson

Cinematographer: Sven Nykvist

Composer: Erik Nordgren

Cast: Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson, Axel Düberg, Tor Isedal, Allan Edwall, Ove Porath

Based on legend, and featuring perhaps von Sydow’s greatest performance, Bergman’s masterful, visceral, beautifully photographed middle-ages set gut punch of a film – a tale of faith, rape, murder, and revenge – grabs the viewer by the testicles early on, and doesn’t let go until its shocking, emotionally exhausting climax. Iain.Stott