dir. Ingmar Bergman
year. 1957
country. Sweden
run-time. 96 mins
rating. 15
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
Doors - 2:30pm
Film - 3:00pm
A disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) are home from the crusades. Black Death is sweeping their country. As they approach home, Death (Bengt Ekerot) appears to the knight and tells him it is his time. The knight challenges Death to a chess game for his life. The Knight and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.
“My indifference has shut me out. I live in a world of ghosts, a prisoner of dreams. I want God to put out his hand, show his face, speak to me. I cry out to him in the dark but there is no one there.”