Picture of the movie Bergman Island © CG CINÉMA
Bergman Island, Mia Hansen-Løve in the footsteps of Ingmar
Twelve years after Le Père de mes enfants, showcased at the Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve enters the competition with Bergman Island, a shocking love story haunted by the shadow of the Swedish filmmaker. Against the background of the emblematic island of Faro, the French director shares a two-sided story which focuses on the foundations of a couple and their relationship with cinema.
For her first fully English film, Mia Hansen-Løve tells a curious story of a couple of filmmakers who retreat to the mythical Faro island where Ingmar Bergman lived, in hope to find their own inspiration. As the couple’s individual stories progress, and as they encounter the wild landscape, strange occurrences star to appear, blurring the lines between reality and fiction begin.
It is here at the heart of this genuine place of pilgrimage for film enthusiasts – as the title of the film indicates – where the couple faces cruel truths and buried secrets which will put their marriage to the test. A reflection reminiscent of the mythical: Scènes de la vie conjugale (1973), part of which was also filmed on the island that was the backdrop for d’Ingmar Bergman et Liv Ullmann’s love affair.
An island of creation but also of separation, Farö “embodies an ideal that is both frightening and alluring, it is the place of absolute artistic integrity with which I associate Bergman," says the director who has developed a passionate relationship with the Swedish filmmaker's work over the past ten years. It was while working in one of Bergman's houses that Mia Hansen-Løve thought up the story of Bergman Island. Inspired by timeless landscapes and the spiritual presence of her mentor, she creates a feature film where reality and fantasy come together to ask a universal question: do we really know the person we live with?
