Synopsis
The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan, 1960) is Ingmar Bergman's stark medieval drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Two young women ride through a Swedish forest to deliver candles to a church. Only one of them comes home.
Karin, the cherished daughter of devout Töre and Märeta, travels with her foster sister Ingeri. Deep in the woods they meet three herdsmen. What follows, Bergman shoots without music or mercy, plainly, almost like a report. That night the killers seek shelter at a farmhouse, never realizing it belongs to the murdered girl's parents. Töre, a man of faith, chooses vengeance instead. Max von Sydow, a Bergman regular, plays the father; Birgitta Pettersson plays Karin.
The film draws on a 14th-century Swedish ballad. It took home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and later seeded an entire genre — Wes Craven openly modeled The Last House on the Left after it. Bergman offers no comfort and no tidy answer, only a hard question about faith and retribution. Stream The Virgin Spring (1960) online on iFILM.
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