Fårö Document 1979

Ingmar Bergman went for the first time to Fårö while searching for a location for his film Through a Glass Darkly (1961). The outcome for this visit was that Bergman made several of his most important films of the 1960’s on Fårö, among them Persona and The Shame. He then bought a piece of land on the island, on which he later built a house and now he lives there permanently. In 1969 he made, with Sven Nykvist as cinematographer, The Fårö Document, a film that ended with a rather pessimist view of the island’s future. One of the scenes in the film is of a school-bus and its young passengers. To these and to the realities ten years later Bergman returns in the long documentary Fårö Document 1979.

The perspective in this film is wider, but the intention is the same: to describe a small section of a large community, a living environment where its people work and love, where apprehension mingles with doubt, bitterness with joy. As the making of the film stretched over several years, the story takes on a depth and proximity lacking in most documentaries.
The film tells with humour and sym¬pathy, the story of a people’s destiny, as deeply moving as Bergman’s fictitious characters.
A long acquaintance and involvement with the island has given Bergman the chance to create a film to go down in history. The scenario to the narrative is the unique beauty of the Fårö landscape, the people’s dependence on nature, and their tenacious struggle to survive.

Production Facts

Original Title: Fårödokumentet 1979
Country of Origin: Sweden
Production Year: 1979
Language: Swedish
Duration: 103 minutes
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Production: Cinematograph AB
Script: Ingmar Bergman
Editor: Sylvia Ingemarsson
Sound design: Svante Pettersson, Sigvard Huldt, Dag & Lena, Ingmar Nordströms, Strix Q, Rock De Luxe, Ola and the Janglers

Fårö Document 1979

Production Facts

Biography: Ingmar Bergman »

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