The Virgin Spring

The Virgin Spring

(Jungfrukällan), Ingmar Bergman / SWE, 1960
Swedish version / Czech and English subtitles, 89 min

Set in beautiful 14th century Sweden, it is the sombre, powerful fable of peasant parents whose daughter, a young virgin, is brutally raped and murdered by swineherds after her half sister has invoked a pagan curse. By a bizarre twist of fate, the murderers ask for food and shelter from the dead girl's parents, who discovering the truth about their erstwhile lodgers, exact a chilling revenge.