About

"I feel that in 'Persona' – and later in 'Cries and Whispers' – I had gone as far as I could go. And that in these two instances, when working in total freedom, I touched wordless secrets that only the cinema can discover." - Ingmar Bergman

Two women retreat to a cottage on the Swedish coast. Alma (Bibi Andersson), a nurse, has been tasked with overseeing the recovery of Elisabet (Liv Ullmann in the first of her many Bergman collaborations), an actress who is seemingly unable to speak. Over the course of their time together, their relationship grows more enigmatic as their identities merge and sublimate one another.

Persona represented a bold formal departure for Bergman. He embraces startling and provocative modern filmmaking techniques, while largely abandoning the openly religious conversations of his previous films. The film finds a master director completely liberated, presiding over two of the most wrenchingly open performances ever captured on celluloid. It remains a monumental film, whose influence can be found across the decades of cinema that followed.

M | Sexual references, Adult themes