Wild Strawberries

Bergman's film opens with a disturbing dream of the solitary Professor Borg - a reflection on aging, fear of death, and a wasted life.

Borg's dream reminds him of approaching death and an unpaid debt he must settle. Instead of flying - out of superstition and fear - he chooses to drive south through Sweden. Accompanied by his fiancée, the trip gradually becomes a journey into the past and his own inner world, where the boundaries between reality and dream slowly dissolve. At the end of this spiritual journey, Borg awaits a cruel awakening and a reassessment of his entire life.

Wild Strawberries is a deeply personal work: Borg's terrifying dream stems from Bergman's own dream, and the film is his intimate confession. The painful struggle with death was experienced in his role by actor Victor Sjöström.

The film won the Golden Bear and FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1958, the Francesco Pasinetti Award at the Venice Film Festival that same year, and a total of 12 film awards. In 1960 it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.