Two sisters – the sickly, intellectual Ester (Ingrid Thulin) and the sensual, pragmatic Anna (Gunnel Lindblom) – travel by train with Anna’s young son Johan to a foreign city on the brink of war. The trio stops at a decaying, deserted hotel, where their strained relationships unfold against a backdrop of oppressive silence and a language they do not understand. The concluding film in Bergman’s triptych on themes of faith and religion, The Silence is the most audacious of the three, a disturbing, almost dialogue-free, exploration of emotional isolation in a suffocating spiritual void.

Notes by David O’Mahony.

This film screens as part of BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL: THE FILMS OF INGMAR BERGMAN.

See the full collection of films on IFI@Home, launching February 1st.