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Home , Gunnel Lindblom, Ingmar Bergman, The Virgin Spring

The Owl of Minerva Theater Presents

Wed Feb 21 | 6:30pm BCSB 101

The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (1960, ). One of Ingmar Bergman's first, big international hits, The Virgin Spring is set in a medieval village, where a young, spoiled girl, Karin (Brigitta Petersson), is the only surviving child of feudal landowner Töre () and his wife Märeta (), who are both solemn followers of Jesus Christ. Karin is ordered on Easter morning by her stern father to bring the sacred Virgin Mary candles to church and wear the special fancy dress that has been set aside for the occasion. Karin is accompanied by her jealous dark haired unmarried pregnant half-sister Ingeri (), who just that morning invoked a vengeful pagan curse on Karin through the Norse god Odin. Riding in the woods, Karin is brutally raped and murdered by two itinerant goat herdsmen while their innocent younger brother and Ingeri look on. Taking her gown, the shepherds hope to sell it and move on. They arrive by accident at Töre's house, where they're greeted with hospitality. However, when their crime is discovered, Töre departs from his Christian teaching and takes brutal revenge on the killers. When the deed is done, the devout Christian father begins to question if there is a God and if there is one, why does he allow such cruelties. When visiting the forest spot where his daughter was slain, suddenly a virgin spring bubbles from the ground from the same spot, and he takes this natural phenomenon as a sign from above that there is a God and builds a church on the place as penance. Based on a medieval ballad, the haunting tale takes place in thirteenth-century , when Christianity and paganism clashed for acceptance. The movie explores thematic motifs in Bergman's work, such as deep moral and religious questioning, the testing of human faith in God, mythic ideas and symbolic imagery. The grim but beautifully made fable was written by Ulla Isaakson and photographed by , the first in a long and fruitful collaboration with Bergman that won both artists followers all over the world. The Virgin Spring won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language at the 1961 and other honours.