Description:
Director Mia Hansen-Love’s semi-autobiographical meta film about the quest for inspiration, Bergman Island pays homage to the great auteur Ingmar Bergman.
Chris and Tony, a filmmaking couple, decide to spend a summer living and working on the Swedish island of Farö. The island is one of the meccas of cinephiles: the long-time home of legendary auteur Ingmar Bergman. Both filmmakers are preparing new projects from different points in their careers and hoping that the island setting will provide them with inspiration. A full two decades older than his wife, Tony is an already established international reference; Chris, for her part, still struggles to balance her duties as filmmaker and mother. As their respective scripts progress, they come in contact with the wild landscapes of the place, souvenirs of a first love resurface, and the lines between fiction and reality blur, tearing the couple apart.
"My movie was born before it was set on Farö, as an idea about a director couple out on location, dealing with the difficulties, mysteries and strengths of a creative process, and the power you can find in your own vulnerability once you face it. Farö was already a mythical place for me, as it is for those who admire Bergman. When he died, there was an auction to sell off all of his belongings. And this meeting between the Bergman of the legends and the real person, the human being through his objects, /.../ felt inspiring to me." (Mia Hansen-Love)