Shame (1968)

Synopsis

Second in the 'Faro Island trilogy' (between 'Hour of the Wolf' and 'The Passion of Anna') directed by the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Set in a near-future civil conflict, the film documents the struggle of a young married couple, Jan (Max von Sydow) and Eva Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann) to remain apolitical and keep out of the war that rages around them.
See more Second in the 'Faro Island trilogy' (between 'Hour of the Wolf' and 'The Passion of Anna') directed by the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Set in a near-future civil conflict, the film documents the struggle of a young married couple, Jan (Max von Sydow) and Eva Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann) to remain apolitical and keep out of the war that rages around them. Retreating to a remote island, they manage to scrape together a living growing berries on their farm. But their tranquil existence is shattered when soldiers from both sides of the conflict arrive on their island and fighting breaks out. Their neighbour, Colonel Jacobi (Gunnar Björnstrand), who is in charge of the army defending the island, agrees to protect the couple if Eva will sleep with him, which in desperation she does. Jan finds out about Eva's betrayal just as the rebel forces gain the upper ground, and willingly complies with the rebels' orders to execute Jacobi. These two acts leave the couple estranged from each other, devoid of hope and morally bankrupt. In a scene critics have described as one of the most powerful in cinema history, the couple leave the island on a boat moving through a sea filled with corpses, and Eva tries in vain to think of something - anything - that is warm, kind or human to comfort her.
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